#‘not nice’ this person is saying they dont like masc women

[butchladymaria]

Sorry Percy but you can’t say the post and especially people in the notes of it are lesbophobic when it isn’t and just think people are gonna believe everything you said like that without explaining a bit. Don't make up things not nice for the people in the notes

But i understood you don’t wanna look at it. You right it’s better not to if it make you uncomfortable.

if you do not recognize this as both blatant undisguised lesbophobia AND transphobia, it is 10000% your problem. i am out of patience. get out of my inbox.

[t4transsexual]

have you ever dated cis women? when did you decide to be t4t?

i have dated a couple of cis women, one for a little while and we didnt get on because she was one of those fems who doesnt want their butch/masc/transmasc partner to have feelings and needs and also didnt want me to say no to sex and we didnt last long because i was deeply unhappy with her

as for when i decided to be t4t, i guess its probably about time i open up about the specific instance(s) that lead to me deciding to be exclusively t4t, because i havent actually talked about what pushed me to make the shift into exclusively dating trans people. i was trying to run a more positive page and frankly i wasnt really ready to talk about this so publicly, especially with the terf/transphobe interaction i get almost all the time on this account, but i figure i can now and ill probably turn off replies if i can figure out how

tw for graphic description of sexual assault and transphobia under the cut

when i started medically transitioning, i decided to try dating guys again. keep in mind i had a lot of comphet before deciding i was t4t; i basically only really beat that around 2022 when i turned 20. and i matched with a cis guy on tinder, who looked like he had a lot of personality judging by his photos i was 18, almost 19 at the time

literally the first thing this man says to me, after i tell him im trans, is "oh, cool, i love femboys." red flag #1. i said, "im not a femboy, i present masculinely, dont call me that." he apologized, and we moved on

at some point, we're talking about sex. he says hes very subby and a size queen. all fine, i told him i was a stone top/dom, i didnt really like experiencing penetration and it was painful for me due to a condition i had at the time. he says thats fine, everythings good. this will be important later

later, he tells me he told his parents i was trans. i asked him why, given that he both didnt ask me first and said his parents were transphobic. he says "my mom asked, was i just supposed to lie?" i say, yes. he apologizes, i /really/ want to call the whole thing off at this point but he seemed nice enough that maybe he just didnt know trans dating as well as i did

the entire relationship, he just says transphobic shit. he told me that he "understood why people didnt want to date trans people, because its a lot of baggage." he was an active alcoholic by the way. and also dating a trans person. he would neg me for being trans and then turn around and say that i was such a hot guy. he even misgendered me one time, and got upset at me for getting pissed about it, and made me believe i was overreacting. he made me believe that he was doing me a favor by ever dating me

at some point, we're at my parents house, and he tells me he wants to fuck me with his penis. i tell him no, that i dont want to, that i dont know about it, that im scared, pretty much anything i can say to get him to reconsider, but he argued and said itd be good for me and that i can choose which hole but it became very clear to me that i had no choice. so i said he could fuck my pussy

it was excruciating. it hurt so bad, but i knew i couldnt say no. he couldnt stay hard unless he was degrading me and i didnt want him to, so he kept making me jerk him off so he could keep raping me

eventually he stopped, and i wasnt even really aware i had been raped at first. ive been sexually abused by several people in my life and generally it has taken me a while to accept when ive been sexually abused by a person. so we kept dating like normal, long distance btw, but my mental health was deteriorating. i was suicidal for the first time in a while. i was self harming again. i couldnt stop thinking about killing myself.

eventually, he breaks up with me for being suicidal. he says im guilt tripping him or something, i dont remember. and that was december of 2021

we go no contact. i still dont realize he raped me. but i knew that there was something deeply wrong in the way our relationship was

right after him, i dated a trans woman who we went to the same high school. just the difference in how i was treated by her than by him, with her she treated me like i was an actual equal in the relationship. with him, he felt he was superior to me; like he "owned" me, or something

we broke up, we werent really compatible, but when i got with her, she taught me what being t4t was, and the implicit understanding and the comfort and safety i felt. after we broke up was when i decided i didnt like men, and still remained t4t after

i realized what he did to me was rape nearly a year later. he correctively raped me for being a stone top, more specifically, and i dont think he wouldve been "empowered" to rape me if i was a cis man, or even a cis woman. i understand that the "off" feeling i felt throughout that relationship was because he, as a cis person, felt superior over me as a trans person, and felt that if he wanted to fuck me, i shouldnt get a say. he talked about doing other actions to me that i didnt want done at the time, certainly not by him, and if we werent long distance, he probably wouldve raped me several more times

being with my current girlfriend, we click in a way that i havent felt with any cis person, the women included. she definitely isnt going to rape me for being trans. ive undergone physical therapy so that if i ever got raped again, it wouldnt hurt as bad, and it worked and ive actually enjoyed bottoming (consensually) with my girlfriend. she makes me feel very safe, and we understand each other and each others needs as trans people very well, and being with her has helped me process the time i was raped, and the several other times ive been sexually abused by other people

now that ive had time to process these things, i would say that i dont feel the same way around trans people (including me) dating cis people anymore. when i first started this account, i wouldve never admitted this then btw, i fully did not think trans people should date cis people, because i had fostered such a deep distrust of cis people as a result of that whole relationship and assault. i believed cis people would always be bad partners to trans people, but i dont believe that anymore. in the very unlikely circumstance i find myself single again, i may even consider dating a cis woman again. but probably not, because ive grown to really like the implicit understanding that we as trans people get with other trans people

thats why im t4t, and when i became t4t was around the beginning of 2022

[a-faggot-with-opinions]

do you realize you can talk about that stuff without being actually transmisogynistic in the process? like calling trans women "those people" (phrasing often used for othering and used demeaningly), mocking being called transmisogynistic, acting like trans men have no axis of power above trans women (because yes, everyone is oppressed, but they are just generally in more danger by default. trans women are always the strawmen conservatives fearmonger about), and generally turning it into a thing of trans men vs trans women.... like you are talking about this in a very fucking weird way and i dont know if its just cuz ur angry or what. but like also are you not able to tell when people are clearly venting on their blog to themselves and their friends about something and are not directly talking about you? turning this into "trans women want to rape me" is actually vile behavior. you ARE in fact being transmisogynistic here. was what they said nice, necessarily? no. but it is not a genuine threat, nor was it actually meant for you. they were clearly joking to their trans masc friends. sometimes you stumble upon people joking in a way that does not mesh with you. that does not mean you need to take it as a personal attack. also you and that other person did the exact same thing you claimed they did (saying trans men will become terfs, etc) by saying theyre all evil racist 4channers etc like... god! just be fucking normal! i thought you hated cis people not other trans people!

I'm about to go to sleep so I won't respond to this anon fully but saying that me getting mad at someone for making a "joke" about raping me and making excuses after that is transmisogynistic is actually really misogynistic. The people involved weren't even trans women, it was transmascs.

It's not your place to tell someone who's been sexually harassed by this guy's followers all day how I should feel about this guy and the other vile shit the people on that thread said about me. This has nothing to do with trans women and you know it. I never said all trans women are racist either. Me getting angry because TRANS MASCS "joked" about raping me has LITERALLY NOTHING TO DO WITH TRANS WOMEN!

[klapollo]

i dont know much about finnster and he seems like a nice guy but i do think it's a little odd how some people eagerly sexualize him seemingly solely off the fact that he dresses like a girl. like he's obviously beautiful and DOES deliberately try to play up the sexy egirl shtick a lot but i sometimes get the vibe that people (consciously or not) out and out fetishize him based on his gender presentation in a way that i think speaks to the way we tend to sexualize and objectify anything woman-adjacent. this isn't a problem with HIM but rather how people TREAT him, the way our collective ideas about femininity and women manifest. like i feel like if a cis woman dressed masc to the point of being indiscernible from a cis man people would not react the same way. and sometimes it kinda verges into a chaser-y flavor to me too -- like people treating it like some illicit kink when it's just a guy in a skirt. a man wearing a skirt is not in and of itself sexual and i think it says something that SOME people feel it's kinky. like the same vibe as people saying that goth girl driving the tractor was "fetish content" like sometimes a woman (or a womanly person) is just existing.

idk i feel like i'm WAY overthinking it but it kinda leaves a bad taste in my mouth. what do you guys think

[cepheusgalaxy]

On inclusive language: by a nonbinary transmasculime person

"Ladies and gentleman", "boys and girls", "man and woman". Gendered language is everywhere, and if we want to pratice more inclusive language to represent more people and not be dumbass assholes, we gotta be thoughtful.

I see some people around trying to substitute "ladies and gentleman", with things like "ladies and gentleman and those of us who know better" etc and etc, but I'd like to offer the inight that maybe that's not themost inclusive language out there.

We are accidentally excluding questioning people, people who both "know better" and are a lady or a gentleman, etc etc.

But that would leave us down a rabbit hole, where we keep adding and adding specifics to include every person out there, and it wouldn't work.

The solution? Generalize.

When we try to substitute "women" in certain cases, like with people who have periods, we might feel prone to say "afab people" but wait! What about intersex afab people without uteruses or afab people who had their uteruses removed? What about amab people who have uteruses? What about afab people with uteruses that don't have periods for a variety of reasons? We couldn't possbly list them all in a practical sentence!

Unless we generalize. Say "people with periods". No need to specificate. That's what relevant for what you're talking about.

"Men and women?" Avoid "men and woman and nonbinary people and multigender people and questioning and...", try "people/human beings/mankind". What I've found extremely upsetting with inclusive language is when people take an outdated but generalized term (e.g. using Men to say Human kind) and specify it more to include more people ("men and women") but by taking the generalization away, you exclude so many people. That's why we should generalize.

Another example of overspecifying is in my language, with lots of gendered nouns (like president or doctor) who were usually used in a masculine looking form, are now being susbtituted by alternatives that include a masc and a fem form. O presidente + A presidenta. That includes she/hers but its not including everyone. Sometimes it includes less people, because it takes the generalization away. But does that mean we should go back? No! No, I say. We need to go further. Include more people by saying less.

That said, my favorite substitute for Ladies and Gentleman? "Beloved audience". It's classy, it sounds nice (unlike esteemed guests, for me dont judge me) and better, it's general.

So, yeah, TL;DR: Don't overspecify. Generalize.

[davidtennantpussytulpa]

haiiiiiii tara 💜💜💜 15, 30, 34, 35, and/or 43 for the ask game pleease teehee teehee [giggling and kicking my feet like we’re gossiping at a sleepover]

15: Favorite movie

BEETLEJUICE FOREVER AND EVERRRR!!! its been one of my favorites ever since i was a kid it feels just as amazing and fun every single time i watch it i just adoreee herrrr

30: What I hate the most about work/school

im lonely here :(( i miss having a really close friend to hang out with like i knowwww ill make closer friends but for now its just kinda. sighhhh

34: What I find attractive in women

TEEHEE WELL UHM...... literally anything and everything but thinking abt who ive had crushes on in real life i think i tend to really be attracted to a bit more soft spoken girls who are really sweet. also confident masc-leaning queer girls HELLO. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

35: What I find attractive in men

IF HE IS LAME. AND HE SUCKS. AND NOBODY LIKES HIM AND HES JUST A LITTLE WET RAG AND I CAN BREAK HIM IN HALF. CAN HE BE UNDER 5'6 TOO PLEASE. but also anyone whos really genuine and nice and a funny little goofball will have me clawing at the walls

43: Sexiest person that comes to my mind immediately

I WONT SAY DAVID TENNANT. NOT GONNA SAY DAVID TENNANT. DONT EVEN THINK IM GONNA SAY DAVID TENNANT. okay im going to say morena baccarin :))

[konpeitou]

warning: very autistic trans rambles

i think the biggest reason my brain doesn't latch to any masc / male lesbian terms anymore is bc i dont feel my attraction to women as a feminine attraction anymore

which i know doesn't immediately make a lot of sense but after being on T for months my romantic feelings n attraction have shifted in a way that i dont feel is feminine enough to be attached to anything remotely female anymore, whether it be in a genderfuck way or a masc, or a butch way. it doesn't have a feeling that i can best describe as poprocks after tea way.

feminine attraction felt like that in a way. not that it's distinctly soft as in delicate, but soft like a nice, warn out pillow you rest your head on after a long day. soft like the breaths you take when you're trying to not fall asleep around 4 in the afternoon. it felt shocking at times, like falling into the first, powdery snow of the season. it flowed with the body, cozy and warm.

it feels distinctly masculine now, but not in a like... negative way? i gotta specify? but also because of the feelings being so new still, i can only think of excitement with it as well. it's like a dog wagging their tail upon seeing their favorite person, slobbering all over them when they approach. like the biggest smile you get when someone offers something you love for free, or one that would be pained by miyazaki in one of his movies. masculine romantic feelings feel like your teeth when you bite down on a shortcake ice cream bar- cold, shocking, but you know you'll love the softness inside and the cake outside. but even with all of that, when you focus on it too hard, your brain knows that it's pathetic in a cute way, so it zaps it in social settings unless you can unmask. then you're a complete dork about everything.

not to say none of those feelings can be mixed... but that's how i feel.

[penissirius]

Hi so recently saw this post

And I kinda feel some kinda way. Ngl it kinda rubbed me the wrong way. I put Female DNI on all the reads unless they are gender neutral or in the rare case that it is a x female reader which hasn’t happened in years. But that is simply because I do not want People of just she/her, cis or not, on my account for it is meant for dudes. I am Masc presenting Non-binary who is trying to figure out if I’m just trans or weirdly in between. my pronouns are He/They, mainly He. I make content for x male readers because that’s what I want to read and there’s less of it than for female readers. While people have started making more which I’m soooo happy for! It still lacks. There is soooooo much you could read instead of x male readers. Like really there’s a shit ton of it. If there’s male readers for something, or a fandom, I can almost guarantee there’s even more female readers probably even some that exact same topic/prompt.  And I really really really don’t need any fetishizers on my page because it makes me really uncomfortable. If I write anything that has to do with me projecting like not liking myself gender wise and I wanna be a boy and a character is making me feel better, I don’t wanna know that some girl is reading my struggle for enjoyment and entertainment rather than people who have the same feelings as me and also need the comfort! One thing I will personally never write is smut because I’m uncomfortable writing it and yeah I definitely don’t want women on my account for that. I’m not into writing for the views or followers or anything, I just want to make content for the people who feel like me. Honestly this is the first year I’ve posted my content and kept it up for people other than myself to read and I’m very happy people like it!! I do take requests and I’m in the middle of making my requests thing now. But I will only write for Male reader and Gender Neutral reader. So people who go by he/they or she/they or just they/them can read those ones as well. I don’t mind Females being on my account, especially considering that I have many works in progress for my partner who is she/they, just don’t read my x male reader fics please. That’s the only thing I will ever ask from the people who follow me or like my content is to respect my boundaries of what I do and don’t want for my fics. ‼️ALSO IM GOING IN AND DECIDING WETHER I WANNA CHANGE M/N TO Y/N BUT HONESTLY I DONT THINK I WILL BECAUSE Y/N LOOKS HELLA CRINGE TO ME NOW AND I WANT PEOPLE TO BE ABLE TO TELL ITS MALE IF THEY SKIP MY BEGINNING WARNING THINGY ‼️

If you have a problem with how I view this, welp don’t read my fucking fanfic then lol 😂 I’ve really been trying to be this nice author and like be sweet and shit but sometimes I really just want to cuss and say how I really feel so I tried to convey how I was feeling without cussing. Whoops sorry guess I’ll put 2 points in the swear jar, I’ll put in my bio and make a post about it lol. This has been the lovely author, penissirius, aka Ash <3 and I will be signing off now! Gooodbye my lovessss💕💕

[i-did]

hi mlm here. so i want to write andreil smut but im a virgin so i have no idea what exactly sex is like. but i do not want to write it for the.... straight women gaze. what are some things that are accurate to write about. this is prolly super nsfw but i dont know who to ask.

Okay so this response took me literally months, and I'm sorry about that. I honestly was so excited when I got this question. I don't know why I put off responding?? But here I go: 

CW for discussion of NSFW, STD’s, and a lil homophobia

I bet a lot of people who write smut are virgins tbh, that's not to insult anyone or anything, but like writing is a non physical way to explore sex and fantasies by yourself, so you’re definitely not alone lol.

So you're MLM and want to write smut, (and others who want to get my opinions on writing non-fetishistic smut).

Porn is porn and can have unrealistic circumstances to fulfill said fantasy, such as anything from people messing around in locker rooms to tentacles.

To get a general sense of what is common in MLM sexuality, (rather than the typical feminine gaze that is seen in smut) looking at gay porn and gay porn categories is good insight. 

Bear culture, muscle culture, leather culture, etc. 

These are obviously still porn and unrealistic, however being attracted to sweat, jockstraps, and muscles is very common outside of porn. 

Bear culture is a body-positive movement that started because of the gay community's fat-phobia, age-phobia, and overall shittyness about body hair. 

Leather culture is also really big, it started because of the belief that gay men couldn’t be dominant or “masculine”, even in bed. So in America, leather culture was a way a lot of MLM embraced themselves. 

Going to pride, you will see many men wearing those leather harnesses, it doesn't indicate a preference of topping or bottoming necessarily, they're just something mlm wear and has grown quite popular in the culture, I've known some men to say it feels like a security blanket for them. 

And I think it’s very important to understand these cultures or at least be aware of them on a base level if you’re going to write gay porn. 

Also looking at erotic MLM art made by men, there is Tom of Finland, who was very historically significant, and is the most famous erotic gay artist. There is gay literature, one that openly talks about sex quite frankly is the book “We Both Laughed In Pleasure: The Selected Diaries of Lou Sullivan” which is a series of diary excerpts from a real gay trans man where you follow his life up until he died during the aids epidemic. He talks about sex with partners and discovering himself as well as what being a gay man means to him. He has a real love for sex in a way that is very unashamed and interesting to read about. We know that he wrote the latter half of his diaries with the plan of compiling them and publishing them but he passed away and people in his life carried out this wish for him. He is considered a significant part of gay and transgender history because of this, and his diaries are in LGBT museums. 

Reading gay poetry, looking at gay art, erotic, romantic, grungy, whatever, and you will find and see how they portray things differently than when it’s not portrayed by gay men usually. I mean there is a clear difference between yaoi and bara and that's the audience and authors. Some yaoi are made by MLM, (well technically their called gei comi, or gay comics in Japanese)

“Also known as ‘gei comi’ or ‘men's love,’ bara comics are by men, for men. There is a yaoi equivalent to this, and it is called ‘gachi muchi’-- it is written by women, for women.” – myanimelist.net (lol)

 but more than 90% aren't. I haven't ever heard of a non-MLM bara artist, but I'm sure there's at least one. 

Of course, I've seen things depicting MLM just together pretty realistically that didn't feel like it was written by someone who definitely wasn't MLM, but these scenes tend to be more writing in the general sense of art in the general sense rather than porn, which has a huge gap in characteristics between stuff usually written by MLM vs when it's written by women. (sorry about the binary language here)

I know some people don't like any realism in their porn, but I personally really like small details such as prep being mentioned, foreplay, even acknowledgment of the existence of condoms even if they choose to go without.

Especially as an MLM who lives in America currently, the ever-present acknowledgment and stigmatism of AIDS is around us. We think about it, even when we don't want to. An entire generation of MLM, trans people, and a lot of POC were wiped out. Not necessarily a PWP detail, but including discussion of prep, PrEP (the anti HIV medication) and/or getting tested, even for diseases besides HIV, is a small detail that I think is nice. MLM often have to have a moment when opening up a conversation about sex where HIV is mentioned, our dating apps and hook up apps have sections where you put positive, negative, non-transmissible/undetectable, or prefer not to say. The books take place in 2006 so PrEP didn't exist yet, but also the aids pandemic was happening when they were being born and as young kids, so it wasn't that long ago in society's mind. It's still illegal for many trans people and MLM to donate blood despite that the blood is screened for diseases after donation. 

Also, some realism I like is when a character isn't getting their ass ate first in the morning. Like, for me that's a huge turn-off because I think “holy fuck hygiene.” specifically with anal play I just really think even casually mentioning “washing up” or basic prep, or if you want more accuracy/details mention time between last meals or “x only ate a salad, so he would be fine”. It's like a joke in the gay community to eat chili fries or some shit on a date to indicate that either there will be no anal, or if there is you’re not going to be the one to do it, because you just fuckin ate those fries to say so. 

A cock just going in without prep and no condom is going to A) hurt very bad the body does not do that naturally and can cause injury B) get shit dick.

An also not sexy detail that is common for sex is just laying down a towel so you don’t have to wash sheets. Lube on hands? Wipe off on the towel that you’re on rn. Laying down a towel is pretty normal especially for anal. But this is if you’re going for a much more playing for accuracy sex scene. 

Honestly just writing fingering and prep and stuff like that in my opinion goes a long way and also gives the audience more to read. 

Also, sex is way more than peen in hole. Get creative, frottage, mutual masturbation, docking? Idk like thigh fucking, fucking buttcheeks but not hole, handies, blowies, anal oral, Neil doesn’t have to be the only one who gets his ass ate and things don’t have to follow formulas, in fact, they’re better when they don’t. 

Sex comes in many forms, and like I’ve definitely been with someone and he took off his shirt and I was like what, because he was skinny and clean-shaven and I didn’t expect him to have nearly as much chest hair as he did. I bet honestly Neil has a massive bush, like fuckin, massive. 

Andrew and Neil don’t have to like everything the same amount, Neil could be like “I wanna lick your armpit” and gets really off on it, Andrew is neutral but likes that Neil likes it and agrees even if it does nothing for him physically. Honestly, Neil having a sweat kink imo is pretty fitting lol. 

Try not to categorize the characters into “the bottom” and “the top”, or “the man” and “the woman”

This is something I see a lot and pay attention to how “the bottom” tends to adopt traits that are seen in straight porn that are over-exaggerated. I’m not saying it's inherently wrong to write someone as slim, but we know Neil isn't delicate, but I personally wouldn't categorize him as slim. He's a college-level athlete and is definitely muscular and defined, he has some bulk at least, he isn’t model lean for sure imo. You also often see PWP where the bottom makes a bunch of noise and the top makes none, or the top grunts and the bottom mewls, these are things I personally feel gives the bottom the role of a woman in porn. I don’t think Andreil have rough sex necessarily, but I do think when Neil does make noise, it would be because it was practically punched out of him by the feeling, and would sound more like a gasp than a kitten or whatever. There's nothing wrong with writing them both grunting, both of their voices being lower. Someone bottoming doesn’t suddenly magically not have secondary sex characteristics and stubble and body hair or a deep voice or however, they’re like everywhere else. 

When I read an over-emphasis on Neil’s slim waist and swaying hips and ass I’m like,,, okay someone please mention Andrew looking at Neil’s dick or bulge or shoulders. As an MLM, what do you find hot about men? I like stomachs and arms and shoulders, jawlines, collarbones, asses yes but like in a different way than how I like women’s asses (I’m bi lol) they are smaller and I like them muscled and squared almost. I look at veins on hands and noses and shoulders and backs, I look at a lot and I honestly don't have a type. But yeah so think about what you like, why you like it, what you might want. Or look at what others like, and why and how they want and like it.

what would Neil like, how would he feel about it? And Andrew. I kinda feel like Andrew is low-key masc 4 masc but that's just me lmaoo. Anyways, good luck writing. 

[sleepless-in-starbucks]

Hi could you talk more about why youd recommend not watching ww84?

Sure!

warnings for under the cut: spoilers for WW84 and a bit of the first wonder woman; i only saw WW84 once a few days ago + it’s been a hot sec since i saw the original so if i get a few details wrong i apologize

tl;dr with no spoilers: WW84 is a poorly executed movie that insults its viewer with its messy and self-proud plot, bad character/relationship portrayals, and offers a personal slap in the face to a majority of its audience in their various discriminations, generalizations, and plot points.

the first point is the racism, made well by the post i reblogged here, (edit: found a second post that goes more in depth here) so i’d just suggest looking at that for that matter

next is just How they portray wonder woman in this one

i really appreciated the way the first movie portrayed diana because they did very well in keeping true to her Amazonian raising and life while still clearly showing she was a woman

when i say this i mean that a lot of media has a tendency to either make women who are very fem and keep to traditional gender roles or women who more or less shun femininity and attempt to largely fulfill only male gender roles

diana in the original is a warrior, strong and fierce, but still a woman, not trying to shun that or anything. she wears styles that suit her while still being woman’s styles (she doesn’t force her way into a suit), she talks of and addresses her womanhood proudly and without issue, etc

i want to note here i have no issue with female characters who act extremely masc and reject femininity- i love them tbh- but it’s important to remember that it’s not inherently against womanhood or anything to be a strong fighter who doesn’t stick to every stereotypical social gender norm

and the first wonder woman movie shows this very well

WW84... oh boy

first of all, wonder woman’s changing outfits every other scene. even between scenes where it makes no sense! i’m not saying she can only wear one set of clothes but Geez this was too much

not to mention an entire scene dedicated to her helping steve pick a fashion look? i understand this was to highlight the ‘80-ness of the movie, and it would’ve been fine if it seemed diana was helping him pick a period appropriate look, but it was clear she was trying to help him pick a ‘fashionable’ look which. wonder woman? from the island without a sense of popular outfits or fashion? what?

and the amount of focus on her wearing high heels.... ugh

i’m not saying you can’t have a badass woman who also likes social gender norm fem things but it felt clear that wasn’t what they were going for

wonder woman in the first movie liked practical fashion and not only were many of her outfits not that, her high heels? one hundred percent not practical

it didn’t fit her character and felt horribly out of place, clearly just the producers / directors / whoever going ‘oh, wonder woman is a woman how can we show this? fashion! high heels!’ and i hated it

(warning: imma be jumping from thought to thought as they bump into each so uh... enjoy the train-of-thought style of flaw informing)

and starting at the beginning like.... wow that scene had no purpose

wonder woman cheats in a competition and is punished for this by losing it in the end. except. this is stupid for two reasons

as the audience is shown she didn’t cheat on purpose. she made a mistake, lost her horse, and made a strategy to get back into the race despite this. honestly? i thought the story was going to be a lesson in ingenuity in the worst looking situations. but it wasn’t, which is bad storytelling, because the lesson is then based on a point that isn’t even that true

it is literally Never important again later. unless you count what was going on with the wishstone as ‘cheating to victory’ which i dont. that’s not even what the villain did. he wanted to take over the world. there’s no victory there you get without cheating. wtf. why did that message even happen

going into the actual story we meet the cheetah pretty quick, when she’s still whatever-her-civilian-name-is

and the cheetah... she’s such a bad villain

she doesn’t have the same backstory as she does in the comics

in this one, she uses the wishstone- which is a whole ‘nother thing in and of itself- to wish to be like diana, because ig being smart as hell but social awkward as hell too is so bad you need to desperately wish to be someone else? i hate that trope, but onwards-

she gets that, but in exchange for not only diana’s likable personality she also gets her wonder woman powers (and she loses her glasses, because pretty and cool means no glasses, right? /s), she loses her kindness bc of the rules of the wishstone- in exchange for your wish, it takes smth u care about a lot from you; for her, it was her kindness

this makes her villain! just because she lost her kindness. yep. honestly not a good look regarding all those people out there who are low/no empathy and can still be wonderful nice people but i digress

at one point she complains about why she needs to keep her power rather than go back to being just Her and i fucking wanted to scream

she has like. half a dozen degrees, clearly a couple of friends even if she’s awkward, and she’s got a life that was perfectly okay before she made the wish. as someone who is also socially awkward as hell, it infuriated me to here her acting like it was the fucking end of the world she couldn’t be more extroverted or whatever. there are ways to work on that!!! the movie trying to convince the audience she had a legit reason to not un-wish her wish (for the good of the entire world) was stupid and insulting

also her transformation between ‘looks human, wearing cheetah-pattern clothing‘ to ‘humanoid with cheetah fur/skin/appearance’ literally just. happened. for no reason. that was stupid

y’know what else is stupid? the wishstone. it was clearly just a plot device, and a poorly executed one at that. it isn’t even consistent in how it works

and they did a whole side thing with like. how it had the language of the gods written on part of it and it appeared in random locations across history around the time of great tragedies and,,, that was it???

they never explored the divine connection??? who planted it or why??? how it location traveled or anything????

like i said. poor plot device

i move on now to steve

oh boy steve

he’s brought back to life by diana’s wish on the wishstone, but... it causes him to come back in someone else’s body, quantum leap style. this is. weird. and is never ever addressed by him or wonder woman except once in a throw away comment. like. diana and steve kiss and are implied to have sex while steve is in someone else’s body and neither of them seem to care. this is not good!!

and then his relationship with diana? HORRIBLE

in the first movie they were barely starting to fall in love, only barely a couple even if that. more importantly they were friends, and that night he died diana didn’t lose a potential lover so much as she lost her first non-Amazonian friend

but WW84 portrays their relationship as if they were not only already a couple, but one close enough that even after forty years since steve’s death diana is still completely and hopelessly in love with him to the point that she’s literally hanging off his arm as soon as he’s back and making love that very night

it plays again once more into the misrepresentation of wonder woman’s character (how stereotypically hollywood female to fall over herself at the sight of her love interest) and it wrecks their relationship, which had been a lovely friends-who-could-be-more

what they should’ve done was focus on that friendship, build it back up after the long gap for wonder woman, and then started to rebuild that possible romance (and tear it down at the perfect moment... right when steve had to go again... ah that would’ve been lovely)

but they wanted to go in full-haul on the romance and it just felt. wrong and weak to me. diana’s refusal to consider giving up her wish (to get her powers back and save the world) is bc she doesn’t want to let steve go again, which makes more sense in the context of a first and true friend rather than a hastily slapped together love interest

steve’s character was generally good tbh but the way he played into the story? bad

moving on... the main villain of the movie? sucks. he’s just. fucking awful

despite a motivation being given that he wants to have money, he launches into wanting to take over the world for no real reason. he takes advantage of people for this and almost destroys the world he wants to rule for it. the main reason he stops this is for his son, who up until now he largely ignored and didn’t seem to care that much for outside of basic obligations. and the movie dares try to make him sympathetic by throwing in the fact he grew up poor and was bullied and not liked which i HATE

lots of people are/have been poor. lots of people are/have been bullied (myself included). that does NOT justify them DESTROYING THE WORLD TRYING TO TAKE IT OVER. can it be used to show the audience why he does what he does? yes. but to use it and clearly try to make it a reason to hand-wave-away what he did? NO. FUCK NO

also fucking. y’know how wonder woman took down this villain? she talked to him and the world. she gave a stirring speech while she laid slumped against a wall, not injured, just too weak to beat a bit of wind. she talked and she looped her lasso around his leg so she could talk to the world to to convince them to give up their wishes

once again... the mischaracterization

in the first movie, wonder woman gives a stirring speech while fighting Areas. it’s done in her battle, beating the god of war up while reminding him of what she stood for, who she was, why she would keep fighting for a broken world

it was BEAUTIFUL. it was MEANINGFUL. it was BADASS but SINCERE

this was weak. and it clearly wanted to be more than it was

the whole movie wants to be more than it is- it wants to have an important meaningful message like the first movie, about wishes for the self and war and the world and whatever. and it wants it so badly it does it horribly

the message is ham-handed yet messy and unclear and not right. it doesn’t make sense, and it feels poorly plotted. the movie thinks it’s more than it is and that makes it very hard to watch

and to finish my rant off... WW84 lied to its audience

did you see any ads for WW84? i did. they were bright, vibrant, funky music, stunning moments, action and intrigue. i was thrilled for a movie like it

the actual movie isn’t that

it’s not nearly as action filled, it’s not as ‘80s-focused as it leads you to believe, some of the most prominently featured moments barely matter

the lightning swing? pointless, as at that point in the movie wonder woman’s learned how to fly and does it for no reason but the trailers

and that cool suit? introduced in a random myth for no reason halfway through the movie, brought in at random with no explanation, only there for show and the trailers

WW84 is not the movie is lead people to believe it was, and the movie it is is poorly executed and insulting to a variety of peopler/minorities

if you’re gonna watch it, pirate it. i can give you a link. just don’t give dc your money or your legit views for it

[transmasc-wizard]

gonna ramble about Gender and how the fuck it goes on in the GFS cast now. did anyone ask? no. am i doing it anyway? yeah, cause im thinking about Gender and now i wanna talk about it

taglist @the-gay-lady-of-ravenclaw-tower @stormharbors, @citywillow (eyyy it worked this time), @timelybees

feel free to ignore lmao it's not super plot-relevant, but its... kinda? probably? character relevant. if ur curious it's under the cut, in order of narrators

so Angel's gender is lesbian. like, they very much say "fuck gender". their gender is "i like girls". that's established in the 2nd scene of the entire book. she uses she/they and i tend to just... pick a pronoun for each scene and stick to it? when i'm rambling about them on tumblr i switch it up because i dont Care but in-story, i stick to one per scene. But yeah angel doesn't really... have a gender in a normal acceptable cis girl way, in Modern Earth Terms she'd probably (?) use 'agender'. although i feel like them using she/they means people would assume she's, like, a demigirl, and that's cool! in my head she is simply genderqueer/nonbinary and is only specifically agender if i'm *pressed* to choose.

Bea's a cis girl, she/her, nothing Schmancy, she's a cool ally (transphobia doesn't really. exist systemically in GFS but like she's nice about everything).

Hope's genderfluid/multigender, she/he/they. he's kind of just chilling and one of the only characters who will switch pronouns mid scene, because their gender actually switches. Her relationship with her gender is pretty much just "meh. it changes. i dont care" although the one thing is when he's a guy, he's not okay with fem terms at all. (masc terms when female and gendered terms when agender are fine though.) I don't know or care what their AGAB is, btw.

Corey's a trans guy, he/him. he's Really Fucking Attached to his gender. Being a guy is important to him. Important note: corey grew up/is in an abusive as fuck environment, and while he doesn't face shit for being trans in a "trans is bad" way, his mother just... doesn't want to spend money on making him happier. So his 'transition' is very much "oliver cuts my hair at the kitchen sink, i burn my dresses, i borrow clothes from my fellow odd little gender gremlins, you call me 'corey' and 'he' or i stab you". also magic HRT & magic top surgery are Things in this world and they're Things he gets. eventually. at some point.

Oliver's my little genderqueer gremlin. he mostly uses 'he' because gender is a scam anyway and he forgets that Most People see 'he' as a gendered word, but they're cool with 'they' too. he and angel kinda have the same gender, though his sometimes fluxes to more masculine while hers doesn't. oliver is the one most likely to be called 'bad' enby rep because he uses 'they' in, like, 3 scenes per book, but... he doesn't fucking care, bud. see above 'gender is a scam'. call him a man, a boy, a void, he, they, sir, ma'am, mx, even she if you really wanna, just don't call them a woman (girl's fine tho) and we're good. his gender is lazy. he wouldn't date someone only attracted to women (e.g. angel, a lesbian) but other than that... anything goes.

Rowan's gender.... oh boy. she's afab and uses she/her which is enough to make everyone assume she's a girl, and they're right. she's a girl. the thing is. the back of her mind says 'i'm more than one, my gender is girl but it's ALSO something else'. she's bigender, definitely. she/it/they. she doesn't use it till the very last book and it's basically a "corey and tasya only" privilge to know she uses 'it' but she does. (they publically switch to she/they.) It's partially because rowan's aro-allo & kinda loveless and feels like that affects their abilities to be a Proper Girl, and partially because just ever since it was little rowan felt like it just Had more than one gender. she's always been that way. basically rowan is a bigender girl/xenogender person and i love her and she's not she/her, it's she/it/they but... that's a thing they don't acknowledge for themself till the Very Very end.

was there a point to this post??? yes. characterization. also the fact that i have One binary dude in my cast... interesting.

but basically short version: angel's gender is No with a side of 'vaguely fem perhaps, in the lesbian sense', bea's is girl, Hope's is Yes, corey's is boy, oliver's is Meh, and rowan's is 'girl but also no but also yes but also xenogender but also the fucking VOID'.

have a nice day drink water and if you read this whole post... wow. thanks

[queer-merm]

I’m gonna try to be clear because I am FUMING, but I want to address something about the whole “using bi lesbian to describe attraction to women and non-binary people is bad!1!1! Because lesbians are already into fem-aligned enbies”.

First of all: how do you define fem-aligned?

“Well I use it to refer to AFAB-“

Ok TERF. You’re straight up transphobic. I don’t see the point of explaining why.

“Well it’s used to refer to those who “look female””

Yikes. Someone looking somewhat feminine does NOT make them woman lite. You do NOT get to push the fucking binary on a non-binary person based on “looks” dipshit. You don’t get to say “well this person looks feminine so I’m gonna assign them “fem-aligned” (read: female-fucking-lite) so I can comfortably misgendering them while pretending I’m woke :)”. Fuck you.

“Well it’s for those who IDENTIFY as fem-aligned”

Aw that’s nice! Finally something that isn’t garbage!

But the thing is, some non-binary who are By Their Own Identification Fem-aligned.... dont necessarily Look the part. I have seen fem-aligned non-binary people look extremely masc (of any AGAB, at that). Are they still included in lesbianism? Even if they look like, gasp, a MAN?? B-but I thought by YOUR own claims, “all fem-aligned people are BASICALLY included in the “only wombyn sexuality uwu”

(Edit for clarification: When I say “looks like a man” i meant “looks in a way that is generally regarded as masculine by society”. this is NOT about transfems, TMA and ”amab” people not “passing” or whatever. It is about people who present in a more “masculine” way, no matter their agab.)

This is what get me so fucking much about “fem-aligned”. You ARE treating “fem-aligned” (And even unaligned and androgynous!) Non-binary people as “Female lite”!! It’s gross!! Don’t fucking do it.

“But IM Non-binary!!1!” DOESNT FUCKING MATTER. YOU DO NOT, NO MATTER YOUR IDENTITY OR ALIGNMENT, GET TO PUSH THE BINARY ON NON-BINARY PEOPLE SO YOU CAN HAVE YOUR OWN LITTLE INSECURE DEFINITION OF LESBIAN BEING KEPT PURE FROM THEMALES™️

“B-but you can never tell WHO is non-binary :/“.

Good news motherfucker. Same applies to every. Fucking, gender. You can NOT, ever, be completely sure of someone’s gender. For all u know the very feminine person you a GoldStarLesbian™️found yourself attracted to is actually -gasp- a man, cis or trans. You cannot apply to “u can never tell” logic ONLY on non-binary people because it applies to everyone. Get yourself out of the binary cissexist outlook on appearances I am /begging/ you.

And this is without getting into those who’s alignment fluctuate, or I’d as BOTH fem/masc aligned, etc.

If you say “well lesbianism can include non-binary genders”, You CANNOT be For fluidity of sexuality when it suits You and Against it when it doesn’t.

Because if you act this way, you ARE treating us as “woman-enough for your liking and as such, Basically female uwu”

“SO UR SAYING I HAVE TO IDENTIFY AS BI ;((“

no I’m saying you can identify however you fucking want, you can define your attraction However YOU fucking want.

BUT

the same applies to everyone else. You cannot police other people’s identities because /you/ are an insecure little asshole with a victim complex who doesn’t mind misgendering us so you can keep on being comfortable with the definition of Purelesbianism™️of which political lesbians and radf.ems are responsible.

“WHATEVER!!1! BIBIANS ARE BASICALLY TERFESES!!!1!”

I’m not gonna lie, u saying a label overwhelmingly used by trans people (and transfems especially!:) is synonymous with /people who fucking hate us/ is fucking immoral and ignorant at best, and straight up disgustingly dishonest and mean-spirited at worst.

Sincerely a (unaligned :) )Non-binary Queer Lesbian who is VERY tired of cis lesbian bullshit.

(PS no one here is saying you’re into men before you jump into that claim, I believe you when you say you don’t find them attractive, get off your high horses.)

Anyway i am only talking about one potential Bibians definition on this post, some other can be found here (https://sirene-saphique.tumblr.com/post/621098048274186240/i-know-some-folks-get-confused-when-hearing-bi)

Here is another post on the history of lesbian and bi-lesbian which I heavily going through because come on I spent and keep spending time on it :3 (https://sirene-saphique.tumblr.com/post/622456906166026240/bi-lesbian-was-made-by-radfems-in-2016-and)

[matoitech]

kurapika for the ask game. also remi bc it's fun to see you demolish him.

did kurapika for the last ask so YES its time to demolish remi. thank you for this opportunity

Sexuality Headcanon: ok so theres two schools of thought about this to me. 

the first is that hes straight (and cis) and proud of both these things and will readily tell you he is cishet, but he still refers to himself and his gf as a queer couple bc shes a crocodile so he says like Unconventional Relationships like your girlfriend turning into a crocodile are inherently queer but galo and lio are heteronormative because galo is kinda masc and lio is kinda fem (the korrasami handmaiden person or whatever but with actual ppl he knows irl bc i have met ppl like that and they r a trip). this isnt the option i typically go with tho just bc its a pain to keep up its only funny for like 1 joke. also i just do not care. no representation for those people

the second is hes straight and after he says something remotely nice to another man hes the kinda guy who says ‘no homo’ and means it unironically. this is the one that feels more in line w canon to me. he thinks gays stole the rainbow. he tells galo this once like he thinks galo can speak to the gay council and has the power to make sure rainbows are no longer associated with gay people. galo is like wow ok sure remi ill let them know and then he calls lio and they lose their shit about it

anyway remis heterosexual

Gender Headcanon: remis gf turns back into a human post-promare and they have a gender reveal party when she is pregnant with their baby and the cake explodes and catches the city on fire. remi loses his job. hes cis is what im getting at

A ship I have with said character: remi x the pinups of women he has in his locker?? 

A BROTP I have with said character: um idk. brotp is a punch to the face delivered by galo because i think it would be healing for me and also galo. galo most likely wouldnt but like imagine post-canon promare remi is an asshole and galo just decks him

A NOTP I have with said character: varys and not bc i dont want varys to b gay bc varys certainly can and should be gay. it is entirely bc remi just RADIATES cishet vibes and varys deserves better and to be totally honest? i think remi was meant to radiate the vibes. cishet allistic coding at its finest. the token one of the group. besides the foundation chars but they dont rly count since theyre villains and remi is just an asshole

A random headcanon: this is remi

General Opinion over said character: i seriously hate this guy like u know characters u just see and u just automatically dont like them for no reason. thats me with remi, though at this point i definitely have reason to not like him. first time i watched promare in theaters i felt annoyed any time he spoke. i do not like his design i think its boring i looked at him and i was like this is bait for cishet nerdboy assholes who think theyre oppressed bc they like star wars and fandom moms who write essays abt why they hate gay characters who will self ship with him. and then fan content proved that to be true. he is allistic and i hate that hes an ass to galo and instead of picking up on him being like legitimately ableist in the ova ppl r just like haha yeah get him remi like bro you are NOT supposed to be rooting for remi here. remi is An Obstacle. so like how fans reacted to him definitely made my feelings on him spiral even further down the shitter. and i hate that hes in merch w galo like why not lucia and aina he had more interactions w them! varys and ignis even! but why remi!

just in general i dont like him, hes not the type of character i like hes the type of character im automatically annoyed by and at this point i am vicious to the dude. he also has the bonus of being the kinda character you hate but hes not The Villain so u can like, make fun of him easier than like. kray foresight bc even mentioning kray foresight gets everyone like euuugh. but with remi hes just fun to make fun of bc hes so sucks. altho yes i do have legitimate reason to dislike him. studio trigger self insert. god i talked so much my hatred for remi runs deep

[randomfandomfamily]

Biggest issue i have with wanting to doing feminity or masculinuty or whatnot is The Options. Sometimes its like everything that is interesting, beautiful, or overall nice to wear is feminine so while i look good, I dont get that brain rush of defying gender roles and shit. I walk into a store: Girls Section has a thousand and one outfits, I turn my head, Boys Section is 3 suits maybe, in varying shades of bland gray. I want the v a r i e t y

---

Yeah, I get that. I’m a trans-masc person and, while I love shopping in the men’s section, there is a very distinct lack of variety. It’s unfortunate, and a problem that needs to be fixed (masculine people deserve fashion goddamnit!). I don’t have much advice I can offer other than “improvise”.

When it comes to defying gender roles, the most “defiant” thing you can do is say: Fuck that, I’ll do it my way. “Feminine” and “Masculine” are just constructs anyway, so do whatever the hell you want. I’ve taken flannel shirts from the women’s sections, solely because I liked the color, and bought it a size (or two) too big just so I could cut the sleeves off. It’s not the greatest solution, but it’s no longer form-fitting or inherently feminine looking, so it works for me.

Mix and match, y’all! Cut shit up! Turn your clothes into Frankenstein’s Monster! Who can stop you? Sometimes it’s not about defying the gender roles, sometimes it’s just more fun to confuse people enough that they’ll have to accept that you are whatever you say that you are.

And, full disclosure, even if the clothes you wear aren’t gender-defying, and just make you feel good, that’s perfectly fine and wonderful, actually. If you feel like you look good in feminine or masculine clothing, even if it means you don’t “pass”, the people that matter aren’t gonna care. Gender is a construct, and it is your bitch, so go crazy stupid and fuck shit up.

[normal-thoughts-official]

HEY SO u didn’t wanna go on a trans!magnus tangent in ur sexuality post but *I* want you to go on a trans!magnus tangent! Tell me more about him coming to terms w/ his identity & how it’s influenced his life and all that. Essentially just give me all the trans!magnus content in ur brain. Love u ❤️❤️❤️ ~cursedlightwood

here’s my hot take: magnus’ gender is Tired. and yes, i will elaborate, because Ive spent the last 2-3 weeks doing research for this ask, so this is probably the most well-informed theory you’ll see on this subject. yeah, we’re doomed

EDIT: i was gonna say this from the get-go but i forgot, so: english is not my first language and i’m unsure about the usage of some terms that i found during research, particularly those referring to traditional javanese religions and customs; so, if you spot anything that is problematic, racist or colonialist please let me know and i’ll change it. 

ok, so i want to start this off by saying that, although javanese society had a binary gender system, they had pretty egalitarian views on gender, and from what i’ve seen the division of labor wasn’t really set in stone - although they were less common than male ones, there were female warriors, for instance. both men and women could be the sovereign and were equally respected, both could ask for a divorce, etc. the most important part of their gender views, to me, seems to be that they believed women were better for diplomatic roles and trading, because they believed men were too emotional and not as good as debating and making compromises as women were (same source)

so i’m just gonna say this, here and now: AFAB!Magnus makes a lot of sense because Magnus is the most diplomatic person you’ll ever fucking see, and in this context, if he were AFAB, he would have been socialized to be for a very young age. and i dont mean hes diplomatic just on the sense that he’s literally keeping most of the characters together and preventing fights (remember when he had to stop a Raphael VS Simon catfight? ugh), but also in the sense that out of everyone hes the one who best handles the seelie queen, for example. he’s good at Wit Battles, negotiating, building bridges and dealing with power relations when its needed.

and i mean, this would also be a pretty good start on why he’d be like “no thanks” when it comes to this whole Womanhood thing, because yeah, Magnus is good at that, he has to be, but does he like it? to me it’s pretty clear that he doesn’t, that he’s absolutely uninterested in anything involving power and negotiations and this whole ridiculous dance it involves. also he’s constantly giving himself the short end of the stick so y’know. honestly, at heart, magnus is an inventor, an explorer; he likes to create things, he likes to learn, he likes to explore the world around him, meet people, help them, build relationships - but on equal grounds, not this whole give-some-take-some thing diplomacy entails. and as a Woman™ in pre-colonial java society, it’s pretty much that, be a farmer, or a concubine - we’re gonna get to that a little bit later on.

so i think in this context little magnus would be like “no thanks” and wanting to go around and, i don’t know, look at plants and learn their properties and figure out why apples fall, or something. it’s not exactly a Man’s Role™ either, although to be fair i found it a little hard to figure out what exactly were men’s roles in javanese society because gender studies usually just focus on women and treat men as the standard and don’t really explore how manhood is construed. but anyway. i know that they were warriors more frequently than women (same source), but women could be warriors as well. like i said, gender roles in javanese society weren’t really set in stone. [alec voice] they’re not rules, they’re suggestions.

add to that the fact that magnus lived in a port city - he had to, since in the early 1600s the dutch were only settling in important ports and trading centers - and the ports in java were very important trading centers that had been attracting people from all over Asia and Europe for centuries, and had a quite good share of migrants and immigrants living there, including quite a good share of Buginese, aka the people who had a 5-gender division. jakarta, which is in java, has like the 10th biggest buginese population in the world, not to mention the countless other societies that had their own views on gender relations; and you have a pretty good and accepting environment when it comes to differences. the javanese were flexible, they were well aware that culture isn’t set in stone, and they were very prone to syncretism. the kingdom allowed people to have any religion they wanted, even if its “official” religion at the time was buddhism. so really: the javanese were actually not very into the whole “imposing cultural constructs” thing, especially the coastal javanese. so magnus would have likely had the freedom to explore and to not really want to conform to any gender stereotypes without that being a HUGE deal, in my opinion.

and then there’s the fact that the concept of womanhood was a pretty disputed one at the time; yes, the javanese had their own views, but it’s important to note that by the 1600s most of the coastal javanese population had converted to Islam, which led to a few differences as well; when compared to other southeast asian communities, for example, the rate of women in trade was a little different - while it was a steady 50% in almost all countries and cultures, in indonesia it was around 30%, because muslim communities had more of a “women stay at home” view. however, when compared to other asian societies such as the chinese society, where the rate was of 1-5%, you can see that the javanese’s egalitarian views on gender stood a fair amount of ground. also, in indonesia, precisely due to their more open views, Islam mostly syncretised with local religions and customs, including the gender views; in Bugis, for instance, the 5-gender system was kept, as were traditional customs such as “ritual transvestism” and homosexuality. so, yes, it was disputed, and people had many views on what people could or couldn’t do, but that mostly ended up becoming a kind of “live and let live” thing. which is the perfect environment for 1- AFAB!Magnus be Very Tired of this whole womanhood thing that no one can even decide what it is anyway; 2- Magnus to say “fuck this” and live as a masc-leaning genderless entity that just wanted to make some goddamn potions.

but then there’s the colonial relations, right? how do the dutch come into this already very complicated and delicately balanced equation? that was honestly the main point of my research, trying to figure out just how much influence the dutch had at such an early stage of colonisation, and also what it would be like to live in a mixed-culture household such as magnus’. here’s what i have:

during the first century of dutch colonisation (aka the part we’re talking about) the dutch and the europeans didn’t really have a big influence in javanese cultural and political relations. the javanese were pretty well organised and had a powerful and strong society so the europeans didn’t really manage to invade them successfully - even the portuguese, the most powerful european nation at the time, tried and failed to invade them for the whole 16th century (get rekt lmao). so what the dutch did was, they simply established themselves as one of the many companies that settled in jakarta to trade, and slowly built their power and influence from there. don’t get me wrong, the dutch were very violent colonisers and in other parts of indonesia they were doing the european thing of mass genocide as much as any other country. they weren’t a “softer” version of colonisers, they just didn’t have the power to subjugate the javanese, so they had to try a slower approach. during the early 1600s, the only dutch people in java were the VOC workers (VOC is the dutch east india company - the acronym is in dutch. basically the company that was there to get some nice spices to sell to the rest of europe so they could shove it all up their assholes or smth since up to this day their food is bland as shit), and they weren’t permanent settlers; they could only stay in java for the duration of their contract with the VOC and they couldn’t bring their wives and children with them, and they couldn’t bring any wives or mixed children they had while in java back to europe, either (same source).

this weird relationship meant that magnus’ “stepfather” and his mother probably had a relationship of concubinage (told you we’d get back to that), which was not uncommon in java neither before nor after the arrival of the dutch. in short, his mother was supposed to take care of his house, make him food and all that jazz, and also have a sexual relationship with him, in exchange for money (same source). it was not prostitution and it worked pretty much as a marriage, except it was temporary and contractual. BUT it meant that magnus’ mother would have to have converted to christianism (same source) and due to the fact that she was in a temporary contract, she couldn’t divorce him, and in their home he would treat her as, well, europeans treated their wives - with the particular western brand of sexism that they so kindly forced unto the rest of us. so that makes the whole thing even more disputed and complicated.

but as a VOC worker, magnus’ stepfather wouldn’t even be home for most of the day, and he couldn’t really keep magnus or his mom from, like, leaving the house and doing their things. i think he wouldn’t even try because that would prolly be very looked down upon in java; spousal abuse in southeast asia as a whole was pretty rare, since anyone could divorce whenever they wanted and women were politically and financially independent, so i think if he tried to pull something like that he would be in trouble - again, the dutch were the minority, and for the most part, they lived as the javanese did, in their villages, in their homes, eating their food and mostly adapting to their customs (same source). they even mostly spoke indonesian in their homes, since most indonesians didn’t speak dutch, and indonesia was kind of the universal language at the time, since there were many languages spoken both in and outside of java (this also explains why magnus speaks indonesian instead of javanese; that would have been the language spoken at his home. you have no idea how relieved having an explanation for this makes me). also there’s the pressing question of, would he even give a shit what magnus does or doesn’t do? magnus wasn’t his biological son, and most of these guys didn’t care about any biological children they might have had with these women, since they were women of color and they would leave them eventually anyway. honestly this is all the more reason for him to treat magnus like shit - he was javanese, he was brown, and he wasn’t even related to him by blood. this was also probably grounds for him to treat magnus’ mom even worse, since in his christian eyes the fact that she had a child outside of marriage made her even lesser than other indonesians.

so honestly, what i’m picturing is something like - most of the time it was pretty okay, there were certain expectations and a certain kind of female socialization but it was okay that he didn’t really fit in there, and then with his stepfather the whole thing was just shit. 

also, the fact that his mom was probably a concubine means there was a fair chance that his stepfather would have other concubines, and listen, yes i may be flexing, but you can’t stop me from imagining that maybe magnus was raised in a multicultural home with lots of other southeast asian women and children and maybe even buginese because again you can’t fucking STOP ME.

but either way, even if his home wasn’t like that, his city was - we don’t know which city he lived in, but it doesn’t matter, really; all cities with dutch settlers were port cities and therefore followed pretty much the same pattern of being a cultural tapestry with all sorts of influences coexisting in peace.

so really, little magnus lived in a pretty rich environment when it came to exploring his identity. he and his mom lived in a pretty egalitarian society gender-wise, he had the space and the opportunity to explore the world and figure out what he liked and didn’t like. am i going crazy imagining a tiny magnus with his mom, running around in other farms and listening, enraptured, stories of people from all over the world, about their cultures and lives, and learning there is so much to see and wanting to just go wherever he could, getting himself a passion for travelling that would later fuel his want to invent a quick way to go anywhere he wanted to, going to the port and seeing all the stuff they had available, from plants with healing properties to spices, and just loving to figure out their properties and how they could be mixed together to create new things, loving this world full of wonder and possibilities? maybe. god.

but anyway, what i’m trying to get at here is that it’s really impossible to think of a cis magnus in this context, no matter if you think AMAB or AFAB trans magnus - i know ive been focused on AFAB magnus here but really that’s mostly because 1- Projection; 2- thinking about AFAB magnus brings in new layers of complexity that need further exploration in my opinion; but really this applies to any magnus. what would being “cis” even mean, in a context where the very concepts of manhood and womanhood were so disputed and complex? and that’s not even going into the fact that after so many centuries, complying to gender roles of that time looked nothing like complying to our modern gender roles. really, it’s a lost cause. magnus kind of has a culturally-specific gender that…. no one but other warlocks born in similar situations could, really? there’s no word for it. there’s no explaining it with words. it is [REDACTED GOOD OMENS REFERENCE]

the closest we have is masc-leaning enby, since somewhere along the way he seems to have decided to use male pronouns and have a mostly masc-presenting body, even if paired with a more fem-presenting appearance fashion and mannerisms-wise. but again it’s too unique, there are way too many influences here.

and honestly that’s kind of beautiful! i love imagining small magnus having contact with people with all kinds of views on gender and society throughout his childhood, exploring, trying on their clothes, learning about their religions and customs, having elderly friends from different backgrounds and also young friends who were raised in very different ways, and sharing all of that, and learning about who he is amidst all of that, and being able to explore that and talk about that to his mom and friends and close people because they are used to these differences. even if when at home he was probably met with some kind of transphobic rhetoric and violence because of his stepfather and the imposed christianity that came with it - and that unlike other religions, didn’t syncretize at all.

which brings us to a second, very important point on the whole trans magnus ordeal, which is how deeply tied to racism the transphobia he’s suffered and the general understanding of his gender was. of course, this applies to every single of-color and non-western born person, but magnus has lived that through history. from a very young age, the blunt of the violence he was met with came from a racist standpoint that believed his very identity and existence made him lesser and in need to be corrected - because that’s what, after all, the colonizers were doing. their whole rhetoric was that the colonized were barbaric and needed them to learn the right ways through violence. it is worth noticing that the javanese have been referred to as “the most inhuman of all people” by dutch colonizers, and amongst the reasons for that was the fact that their views on gender were so different from the european’s (same source).

so really we’re mixing in the fact that he was a “bastard” child in his stepfather’s eyes, a warlock, and trans… and yeah, oof. there’s no way he was treated with anything other than violence from way before his mom’s suicide and the subsequent drowning attempt. in his stepfather’s eyes, everything about magnus’ existence was demonic, impure, and all the more reason why he and his mom were dirty and needed to be corrected.

it’s also worth noting that sorcery was a very big part of javanese culture that was also syncretized with pretty much every religion. the javanese believed in sorcery, believed everyone could do magic, and the dutch, of course, despised that. the source above is a pretty interesting article that argues that the european’s so-called “skepticism” on magic and “rational-based” culture was actually part of a construction of whiteness that hoped precisely to differentiate them from the “savage” others. i mean, the guys were burning women at the stake because they were “witches”, but every other culture’s religions, rituals and magic were just bullshit and couldn’t be trusted because the europeans were too rational and knew better? okay buddy. it also features an amazing story about a dutch colonizer who got hexxed because of his racism that is, quite frankly, heartwarming. but i digress.

so yeah listen i know i already talked about this on the other ask but there’s really no way the reason his mother killed herself was because she found out magnus was a warlock or a demon’s son or whatever. magic was part of their culture. it was what they believed in. it was a part of nature to them. it’s way more likely that the reason she killed herself was the constant violence she was met with in daily life that she couldn’t get away from, and his stepfather simply blamed magnus because, to him, he represented everything that was wrong with their culture - and that makes even more sense if we think about trans!magnus, because that makes him an even deeper abomination. it’s very likely that most of the violence and belittling his mother had to face was related to magnus as well - look what you created, what you do, your culture is an abomination, this is unacceptable. but magnus was way too small at that time, and he believed what his stepfather told him, because i mean, what else would he believe in?

i also think that asmodeus kind of messed with his perception of how the whole thing went down, telling him that he “murdered” him when really it was clearly self defense, erasing the violence his stepfather directed towards magnus and focusing on the end to convince magnus that he was evil, unredeemable, that no one would accept him but asmodeus, that he had no other choice. so that’s super fun! but yeah i do believe that asmodeus spent enough time gaslighting magnus and rewriting this whole story for this to be considered magnus’ worst memory, seen by him as a reminder of his “ugly side” that doesn’t really even exist. asmodeus weaponized this, which served the double purpose of convincing magnus he had no choice but to follow asmodeus, and teaching him that violence is normal and there’s nothing wrong with it, and that retaliating makes him bad. 

this is all i have to say about the asmodeus years, really, because like i said before i don’t think he gives a shit about gender, he’s way older than it and who cares. but the trauma that the whole thing put magnus through is easily weaponizable. @thesorrowoflizards also wrote this amazing fic that features the headcanon that asmodeus used magnus’ transness to manipulate him as well, using spells that made him more masculine and stuff but only if magnus obeyed him. fun! especially considering that he was with asmodeus through his puberty (or at least that’s likely) when his body would have begun to change, so for him to have such a masc-presenting body…. yeah. this is very plausible. i love pain.

and then we get to england, where again, everyone is an asshole, about everything, all the time. like holy shit, he thought the europeans cared too much when he was in java, but that is nothing compared to the brits and their casual sentencing people to death for being gender non conforming. also, to the europeans, asian men were seen as emasculate and their gender relations as a whole was unnatural, and listen, i know that in 18th-19th century england men also wore makeup and stuff, but i mean, magnus was probably seen as exotic in his “effeminate” mannerisms and non-compliance to gender roles, even if people didn’t know he was AFAB or just trans in general. he was probably objectified in that sense, kinda like a human-zoo sorta thing. fascinating, these emasculated asians with weird bodies and customs. ugh.

so yeah gender got particularly exhausting at that time, too. thankfully there were the warlocks, who were old enough to know all of this was bullshit and who had people from all kinds of cultural backgrounds, thousands of people with culturally-specific genders, as well as other people who were raised in similar environments as him. so in there he finds a home of sorts, a place where this doesn’t matter and where he can be himself and nobody cares, and also has access to different cultures and views and knowledge, and really it’s like the good parts of his childhood again. he learns more about magic and potion-making, about other cultures and places, travels the world, learns about science and the workings behind his magic. creates new potions, new spells, continues his education, learns and remembers how much he loves this, the cultural effervency, the chances to learn and explore and create. really the warlock community is so amazing and it’s like, golden era.

but he’s also living amongst mundanes and to some extent he likes them - not to mention, he likes travelling and learning about different places and cultures. and they seem to care more and more about differentiating genders as time goes by, and to be getting more and more violent in their never-ending quest to force people to fit into these roles, and it’s. tiring. exhausting. who cares. it makes less and less sense to him, and this alienation from the whole thing only solidifies his non-conformance and general inability to fit. sometimes he feels old, and alone, even if he has other people who are Like Him now - the shadow world can get tiring, sometimes, and there’s also the shadowhunters racism thing going on that’s also inevitably trying to subjugate their spaces and looks down on their culture - so it also has the downsides of his childhood. sometimes it’s like there’s no word for who he is, no one that can understand it, no place where he can be fully himself and loved for it. and this only intensifies by the middle of the 19th century, when suddenly makeup and colorful clothing is not for men anymore, and he’s even less conforming than before - he was a pretty respectable Man™ to their standarts up to that point, but from then on that is lost. it doesn’t matter too much, because even if he is masc-leaning, he still doesn’t really see himself as a man in the sense that he seems to be expected to. but that furthers the alienation, and the feeling of loneliness and of being old and unfit for this world.

that is also when he meets camille! and that’s canon because there was that one picture of him with camille and ragnor and the clothes they are wearing are very much from the 1840s (i talked about this here), which is precisely when the whole men’s fashion differentiating from women’s fashion thing was starting. so in the context of his gender this makes it even easier for camille to manipulate him into thinking that she’s the only one who will ever understand and accept him, and that he’s naive, and that he doesn’t fit into the world and doesn’t understand what’s best for him, and really he should trust her judgement better because he is a man out of his time, but she can help him, and- yeah. that good olde cis-girl-abuses-trans-person routine, with even more elements than usual. ggghhhghh

and it’s not until the 1960s and 70s that these notions start to actually be challenged. of course, trans people have always existed and were building their own communities and helping each other as well as they could, and magnus certainly was a part of that, because, well, that’s who he is. he doesn’t leave people in need and he knows how painful it is to go through all of this alone, so he does his best to help and adopts pretty much everyone he can. but for the most part, they are a diaspora, and the cissexist society that alienates and tries to kill them goes on unchallenged.

that gives him all the more reason to get so involved with stonewall and the subsequent building of the queer neighborhoods and communities, that feeling that maybe he can belong after all, that things might change and his life doesn’t have to be an infinite cycle of violence, isolation, abuse, and repeat. seeing these events unfold, helping keep people safe, meeting Sylvia Rivera and all the other trans people of color who were part of this, who had stories so similar to his, who were also bisexual (!!), who knew what it was like. that was healing, and that was important to him, and gjfdkafaskfa yeah.

and of course not everything is a sea of roses, because then the community starts to divide and trans and bi ppl, particularly of color, particularly those who are like him, start to be looked down on. Sylvia is arrested and even booed at Pride, suddenly he’s drawing the short end of the stick again. and then there’s the AIDS crisis, and he sees so many people die, and for a while, it feels like there’s no way out after all. and he even loses a lot of his warlock friends, the people who really understand him in his entirety, because sometime around that there’s the Circle massacre, as well. it’s a dark time for him, and honestly it’s a good thing he’s sworn off romance after the whole camille ordeal to clear his head, because after losing so many people he’s never felt this alienated, this alone, and to fall into the arms of another camille or asmodeus would have been just too easy.

but god, he heals. it’s crazy, but he has raphael, he has cat, ragnor, dot, elias, and he somehow builds himself up and relearns to trust and starts to believe that he has the love he’s always believed himself unworthy of having, that he believed impossible to him. and he starts to open up, and to feel more confident in his own skin, right in time to meet alec.

and look, trans!Magnus just makes malec all the more powerful. not only is this shadowhunter showing up and fully trusting a downworlder, giving him his strength, caring about him, cleaning his home (!) and taking care of him, something he hasn’t allowed himself to have for so long, something he didn’t believe he could have and that alec does so easily even when they’ve barely met. he shows magnus so much care and respect from day one and magnus doesn’t get that from anyone, let alone a shadowhunter, let alone a shadowhunter that’s there with jocelyn’s entitled daughter who treats him as a tool - and look, i know he loves clary, but she is entitled and magnus unfortunately enables her and other entitled shadowhunters to treat him as such, because even he treats himself as such most of the time, and it’s something he needs to work on, and probably has been at least since he broke up with camille.

but he’s also a white, gay man, and magnus has seen firsthand that these people can be nasty to people like him. yes he tried to help alec come to terms with his sexuality, and yes he’s surprised him before, but it’s also not like alec didn’t fuck up and wasn’t entirely… well, shadowhunter-y and had a lot of trouble believing that things didn’t have to be the shadowhunter, bigoted way for a while. but alec doesn’t give a shit if magnus is trans, it doesn’t lessen his attraction or love to him in any way, and it’s just. ugh. beautiful.

and yeah this has gotten too long and it already took me like 3 weeks to answer it because of the amount of research ive done and general tiredness so im gonna end this here, and on a positive note for a change! magnus is happy and learning to take care of himself and accepts himself and trans rights. hell yeah.

[morphogenetic]

Ask meme: 1-3, 17-27

anon you’re killin me here [but i want to procrastinate on this essay so here we go]1. describe your idea of a perfect dateuhhhhhhh hm. probably just a low key hanging out type of thing? nothing extravagant, maybe just like. sitting and hanging out and playing video games. something low key.2. whats your “type”fuck if i know. femme-ish guys but Also buff guys. femme buff guys? Holy Shit. i wish i even knew with nb people it’s essentially ‘vaguely masc and also not femme-aligned but otherwise ???’ ….actually my aesthetic taste in guys can adequately be represented by a combination of carlos ze and ling yao so. make of that what you will i guess3. do you want kids?fuck no, i’d be a terrible parent i dont want to subject anyone to that (that and i like kids but like…not That much)17. night club gay or cafe gay?can i choose neither? literally stay inside my house all day gay?18. who is one person you would “go straight” fori mean. cant be straight. kinda hard when nonbinary. but assuming this means ‘if i was attracted to women’ uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hm. this is hard. and also i cant think of any butch women off the top of my head even though i know they exist.sorry anon i got no idea here.19. video game gay, book gay, or movie gay?bizarre fusion of video game, movie, and also anime gay. i know anime gay wasn’t an option but im making it one now, fuck you20. favourite gay ship (canon or not)why would you make me choose like this. [its not a hard choice. carpei. junpei is bi and polyam i dont make the rules]21. favourite gay youtuberi dont really watch youtubers much now but…..okay he’s trans and some variety of not straight so im gonna go with chase ro.ss just bc his videos are enjoyable to watch?? idk dude i mostly just watch vine compilations these days(actually he’s not really Officially out but he’s basically outright stated he’s bi without stating it so.....this is embarrassing a b i t but. dan howe.ll. im so sorry to be a disappointment to you all i just. ive watched him since i was 13? please dont judge me im sorry)22. have you ever unknowingly asked out a straight person?i thought i was 100% aroace until january and the reason that i realized isn’t straight either so….nope.23. have you ever been in love?yeah. not elaborating there24. have you ever been heartbroken?having a grand total of 0 relationships makes that quite hard, so no25. how do you determine if you want to be them or be with someoneuntil recently it was exclusively wanting to be them, and this was not helped by the trans thing, but. idk. im ar.oac.espec and have literally fallen for one person ever so i assume wanting to be them until otherwise given that’s the case 99% of the time26. favourite lgb musician/bandsufjannnnnnn [stevens]. the xx are a close second but i dont really listen to them much, so…27. what is a piece of advice you have for young / baby gaysfind one person you can be gay around; i dont necessarily mean in a dating way, though that’s great too, but seriously having friends who i can just go “i’m so gay” to and have them say “same” back is. nice.gay ask game woohoo