#But the arc is very like wow that Sure Was Cishet of You

[angevinyaoiz]

tliw was wild for making Richard a problematic gay .....the devil's crown was wild for making him problematic gay AND transgender

[unabashedly-so]

💙💜🩷 SDV Bachelor HC 🩷💜💙

How much has each bachelor explored their bisexuality?

Content warning: compulsive heteronormativity, loss of family, grief, risky sexual behavior mention, drinking mention. SFW.

✨The Bachelors✨

Elliott

look me in the eye and just try to tell me this man doesn't already know. i dare you i fuckin' dare you i WANT YOU TO

that line on the 10 heart boat scene about not knowing he could feel that way about another man is bullshit and that is a piece of canon I toss into the sea.

now please understand the majority of this is colored by my very vivid hc of Elliott's upbringing and young adult life, but you're literally reading a hc post that is labeled hc so you bought the ticket now board the train. choo choo mfs.

the low hanging fruit is that this is a man that canonically spends hours on hair care, dresses like that, talks like that, etc. etc.. Yes, you can be cishet etc. and do that, sure.

and don't get me wrong, it's valid that Elliott could just Be Like That. (I love and respect the hell out of that incorrect opinion)

but this man is penny-romance novel cover coded. just. think about that. think about this active CHOICE he is making.

ffs he lives on a BEACH and dresses in a THREE-PIECE SUIT with his PERFECTLY COIFFED hair that he has to spend HOURS on because that's what happens when you LIVE. ON. A. BEACH.

i am going to have an aneurysm about this man's life choices rn

he's arguably pretty self-secure*, which tracks because you don't get to be his age and not have some better understanding of yourself. As others have pointed out, there's no real ""growth"" in Elliott's arc because boy came whole because HE BEEN KNEW HE BEEN THROUGH THIS ALREADY. He's secure in his identity because he's worked it out already! He's moved on! focusing on his career and legacy now that he knows who is he and who he's not!!

*dont make me drag out the receipts his part is already long enough just trust me ok

now meet Elliott in his early 20's and wow, buddy, you are trying way too hard I promise you things are gonna be okay sweetheart

speaking of his early 20's, it's hc to me that he did, uhhhh, so much exploring. of everything. and everyone in the English and Theater department during university.

King Slut, long may he reign. 🙏

just. someone who's not as self-secure and self-aware would not be able to own the aesthetic PLUS the temperament we see with Elliott, who really only gets flustered with the intimate interpersonal stuff because he's a romantic and it's meaningful. He's confident in who he is and the kind of person he wants to be, and you don't get to that point in life without having done a lot of experimenting and soul-searching.

I could write a whole fucking meta on this boy, but for today: 9/10 he knows it, owns it, enjoys it, but he's got more interesting things going on in his opinion than to make one of his core personality traits just Gay/Queer/Bi/Pan, etc. He has an AESTHETIC and BI BY YOBA he's sticking to it.

also he can walk in heels better than you.

Harvey

Hmm, he's actually hard to get a read on for me. There's a few others in the fandom who might have a better take than me, but here's what I can offer.

first let's grant him that he's older. With age comes wisdom, experience, etc. the older bachelor/ettes are just going to be at an advantage vs the younger ones.

also... like 8 years in college. I cannot be swayed away from this as a crucial part of his journey.

twinkle TWINK-le little snack.

it just feels like one of those things he felt happening in high school and might have gotten bullied for it because everyone Knew but he couldn't/wouldn't just own it.

but then in college he finally realized that owning it would give him the power, so he did. kind of. very quietly.

he probably had a boyfriend or two in undergrad. They were definitely the kind to hold hands from the coffee shop to the library. you know the ones, we've all seen 'em. <3

and isn't he just so lucky that he can get butterflies from girls too?

a blessing and a burden for this man with anxiety because, oh no, now everyone's cute.

by the time he gets to Pelican town, his last relationship kind of ended on a sour note, so he's a little discouraged from pursuing romantic relationships, hence why he's a bit guarded and shy and nervous.

he gets a 8/10, he's just quiet about it because who's business is it but his own? also, like, he's literally the doctor for everyone. He's gotta keep some confidentiality in this small town.

Sebastian

while he doesn't show it, I'd say Sebastian is actually quite comfortable with being bi.

I mean like as comfortable as he can be around people in general.

He doesn't bring it up, and doesn't really let anyone know either, but again that's just kind of his MO, regardless of gender.

now when he's Together with someone, well that's a different story. we stan possessive Sebastian in this house 🫡

he probably wouldn't bring it up with the gang unless someone else brought it up first. 🤷‍♀️

would probably give some semi-defensive response of "yeah, what of it??" to his friends, but a low hearts farmer might get a coldly aggro "why are you asking? That's none of your business."

he and Maru Know about each other but keep those conversations private. hashtag just sibling things ig

has definitely kissed guys at concerts before. Lots of people can also provide a feeling of anonymity, letting him get lost in the crowd and not have to worry so much. 10/10

Shane

closeted sportsballer. As a former Closeted Sportsballer, I can see this going two ways.

First option: you DO NOT explore that unless you want things to get real weird REAL FAST.

Like, I'm not even talking locker room nonsense, let's be mature here. Even if you do not like your teammates, you WILL still share a Sports Bond with them built on a shared passion, a common goal, and lots of comiseration.

So if you're already on iffy social standing, which I'm just gonna go out on a limb and say Shane might have had... you're gonna have a bad time.

Then after his gridball career ended, it may have already been baked in that that was Dangerous. OR he could have just been so far down the path of self-loathing that he stopped looking at people romantically.

OR OR--part of his self-loathing actually opened him up to exploring his sexuality......

......which is a very nice way of saying he took part in a lot of risky sexual encounters. 😮‍💨 (with all genders! One night stands do not discriminate!)

so if there were any feelings involved, it was... not good or conducive to self-understanding. Probably made things worse.

cue the drinking! the depression! all the risky behaviors!

ALTERNATIVELY... Option two: he does explore Feelings For Dudes and it could have played into his sportsball exit. 🤔

Hi. Let me just reiterate personal experience here: LEAVING A TEAM CAN REALLY FUCK YOU UP depending on your life outside the sport. Sports teams are a social support group, like, I really hate the phrase "like family"... but literally structurally so similar. If you already don't have a strong family life outside of the sport (like Shane has admitted to, let's fuckin goooooo), AND being on a team is an overall positive thing in your life??

Leaving your team (willingly or unwillingly) takes away that social support. And not just the social/emotional support, but the structure to your life, the routine, the feeling of belonging, the PURPOSE!!!

gee, wonder what kind of feelings those can bring about in a person. like a sad chicken man.

are we seeing a trend here???????

Ok this definitely got more into a sportsball psychological study, but what I'm saying is my money's on gridball heavily influencing his trajectory but since he DIDN'T have the family or social supports outside of it, he crashed and burned afterwards. Contrast with Alex below who DID have social supports and--

focus, bisexuality.

Personally, I like the idea that Shane's been with dudes, but it's never been anything emotionally healthy (except maybe one pre-gridball-exodus which could have prompted the leave......🤔👀) or fulfilling.

5/10, would be 6 but he got -1 because it was driven by self-loathing. >:(

somebody come show him some mlm love!!!

Sam

baby boy. sweet baby boy.

the younger bachelor/ettes are at a bit of a disadvantage because they're in the time of their life where they would be exploring their sexualities in a conducive environment. Not to say the valley isn't but there's, uh, only 11 other singletons there and they all know each other sooooo...

that said, due to Kent's military career, it's likely Sam has had time living outside of Pelican Town, so may be a bit farther ahead than, say, Sebastian who's lived there his whole life.

speaking of Kent, it's canon that Daddy has been in and out of his life and tbf I don't remember exactly how Sam feels about that but

I'm JUST SAYIN'. baby boy gets a whiff of attention from some buff dude who wants to make him his baby girl?? melting.

you know the trope of how girls with absent fathers sometimes overcorrect for that and seek out male attention like crazy? well, who says boys are any different??

what I'm getting at is this: you're trying to tell me Sam has NEVER had a raging crush on Alex?????

I mean fr it was probably like. Alex told him "good choice" on his ice cream flavor once and it was all downhill from there.

plus I'm hoping he's got a solid enough friendship with Sebastian (and Abigail) that they could talk about these things without it getting weird.

also, singer/lead guitarist in a band?? come on, too easy.

anyway 5/10, once again a bit oblivious until he gets smacked in the face. Definitely a flavor of "haha no homo bro! :):) ...... unless...?? 👀"

Alex

closeted sportsballer, round 2 EXCEPT

he canonically admits he crushes real easy. so just statistically speaking, there's an equal likelihood that he's crushed on the male singletons of the valley, too. Which totally doesn't even take into consideration his gridballer time, which I'll get to in a second.

he also admits his crushes don't usually last very long. part of that probably has to do with a lot with attachment issues (seriously he should be more messed up than he is), but if gridball is just SDV American Football, there's probably a good deal of internalized homophobia Alex has had to either work through or not work through. hence why his not het crushes might not last long.

but confusing and conflicting as they may be, THEY'RE STILL THERE. just. probably presenting more like a "wow I'm really noticing this person a lot lately huh. I mean I guess they look pretty good and seem kind of cool..." he's completely and utterly oblivious to so much, his own feelings included.

so what I'm saying is there was a brief window of time where Alex unknowingly had a crush on Sam and, listen, under the right circumstances Sam/Alex (Smalex?) could have been canonized--don'T BOO ME, I'm RIGHT

as for gridball, compulsive heteronormativity is absolutely rampant so there's no way he could have felt comfortable exploring his interest in other gender(s). ESPECIALLY in his case where he's still kind of on the outside, trying to model himself to fit a certain kind of mold. Just, no chance, absolutely none.

and really, Idk, between him and Haley I'm starting to get real compulsive heteronormativity vibes now... not that they're mad about it, but they were kinda forced into those roles and, well, the shoes KIND OF fit I GUESS...

you might say it was ... they're kind of sh... shoeho--shoehorn--*shot*

Anyway, boy's represso. 2/10, if you called him bi he'd say wait why are you leaving , what did you want to tell me???

[nerdyenby]

Yellow time :D I’m watching Oli

Depression starting to set in but NOT IF ITS OLI TIME

This team is so powerful it’s not even funny

“You like my fit baby girl?” wow the way Oli can say that without me wincing in sheer discomfort is so impressive actually

Oh god Oli’s desktop ;-;

They’re energy is so good!!

“AAAAA!!! ITS ETHO!!!!!” Is that Shadoune??😂😂😂

Pirates smp is also my favorite anime, so true

Rocket Spleef

“No pressure guys because it’s first game” “But also we want to win, we wanna win, right?” The vibes here are great

Yo they’re popping off!!!

First place!!! Thems my bois!!!!

Them predicting yellow vs red finale after the first game 👀

Hole in the Wall

Oli the adhd king, we stan

Jordan top five!!!!

Jordan is just so silly /pos

OLI ORIONSOUND

He got out because he was picking music, that’s my streamer

Fruit point out the “it’s not blue it’s left” is so real 😂

Shadoune doubting his sot ability and Oli saying no <3

Scuffed was so fun

“That’s the Spanish guy :(“ Shadoune threatening Ollie in spanish is so… /pos

Skybattle

Everyone offering Fruit stuff and him just being “eh, I’m good” we aspire for that level of simultaneous confidence and humility

That mosh pit is wild

Shadoune’s laugh at Ollie falling out of the world, their rivalry is everything to me, actually

Noooo oli 😭😭😭

FRUIT MVP!!!!!

Everyone just being awed at Fruit popping off is so <333

OH MY GODDDDDDDDDD TGAT ENDING!!!!!

Shadoune 4th!!!!!!

My streamers say to ask for forgiveness not permission pogchamp

Meltdown

Oli igl arc <3

That was a bit rough

Meltdown is so punishing it’s just miserable for the bottom few teams every time :/

Oof

But hey, consistency!!!! Oli got 32nd, 32nd, and 31st

“Yeah, we love the close final so we can stress more” so true Shadoune, based

Grid runners is a solid middle of the pack game, Fruit is so real

Oli wanting a parkour tag finale sure is a take but go off king

Jordan’s rant about MCC tridents is so /pos

Battle Box

“Just in time to win!!” Love Shadoune’s energy

I totally thought Oli was gonna die there lol

Shadoune’s kill on Krinios was so good, came down to the last hit, such a good first round

Shadoune popping off!!!!

Oh my gosh they’re doing so great!!!

8.5/9 HOLYYYYY

Fruit 15 kills no deaths??????

Jordan 0 kills 0 deaths is so impressive actually, what the heck

Ace Race

Eurobeat Revenge by Captain Sparklez 😂😂😂

Fruit having Ant’s run on his second monitor is so funny you guys

Oli doesn’t know the lyrics?? Smh my head…

Oli and Fruit holding hands in top ten my beloved

Fruit, Oli, and Shadoune 5th, 6th, and 7th??????? Absolute kings!!!!

Calling Punz a “B-tier little baby boy” 😂😂😂😂

Aw rip, dropping from tenth to fifteenth at the very end was so rough :/

ALL TOP 15 HOLYYYYYYYYY!!! THOSE ARE MY BOYS

Imagine if they didn’t get last in meltdown, they would’ve been too powerful

Grid Runners

Their team really doesn’t have much of a hierarchy, I love them

That pyramid <333

“Come on girlies, let’s go” - Oli Orionsound to his fellow cishet men, iconic

Oh no the redstone room 😭😭😭

2ND!!!!!!

“We could always throw in dodgebolt” 😐

Fruit closing in on the 4K individual????? It’s possible!!!!!!

Jordan’s deadpan “Do you guys genuinely want parkour tag?” killed me, he’s so based for that

Sands of Time

“I don’t know my wests and rights” 😂😂😂

Oli not reacting at all to the new sound is so iconic, actually

“I might ask you to come back, Fruit, and you shall obey” “But I don’t want to” it’s the audible frowns face for me lol

That was scary for a second there, oh my gosh

The boys are in dodgebolt!!!!

Dodgebolt

Jordan calling Shadoune Capitan Peru :))

Fruit’s “Oh my god, Oli, you are so funny” after his dodge 😂

Fruit just not getting to play, oh my gosh

Jordan expressing frustration of Fruit’s behalf, true friendship fr

Rip, gg!! Congrats to Gumi and Ponk for their first win!!!

And with that, Oli is officially no longer an anchor, he’s a B-tier at least

“Thanks for being so nice, I just need to have a moment real quick” *walks away and screams*

“Shadoune is so nice!! They’re all nice, but I’d never met Shadoune before, Shadoune’s the coolest” so true!!!!

Oli and Jojo <333

Good times, good vibes :))

[checkoutmybookshelf]

Ok, apparently I'm not done talking about Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, and this time we need to talk about the writing, and how it stealthed sexual assault.

Major Content warning for below the break: This post is going to discuss sexual assault and how it is constructed through writing in visual media. Please, please take care of yourself first, and skip over this if you need or want to for your safety or mental health.

So Queen Charlotte's writing had a tendency to stealth things. They hid their use of the bury your gays trope by just not explaining what happened and letting the transition and score and emotions pull the viewer through the moment without giving them time to think through the implications. They stealthed sanism and ableism by making Charlotte herself accepting and putting the sanism and ableism in George's mouth and leaning into the assumptions and biases a white, cishet, American, middle class audience was likely to have about disability and mental illness.

Then they literally said "as long as Lady Danbury isn't putting up a fight or visibly in pain/frightened/reacting in any way, shape or form; her husband is darker-skinned than she is; and they're married, nobody will notice that we showed her being assaulted onscreen five times" and they were more or less right where that assumed white, cishet, middle class American audience was concerned.

This is going to require some unpacking, and please note that I am not calling out or shaming any viewers here. The writing and style of these scenes were carefully crafted to subvert the assumptions of a specific assumed audience (this is the technical term for the audience that writers and showrunners have in mind as they craft a show, it does not mean that the assumptions in the writing reflect the actual thoughts and feelings of the real audience that watches the show. There is always slippage between the two, thats just life). The writing's attempt to stealth gratuitous violence done to a visibly racialized female body to avoid being called out for doing exactly that and thereby perpetuating assumptions and stereotypes that cause real harm to real humans is what I am taking issue with here.

I think it's important to note here that yes, Lady Danbury's arc is definitely about reclaiming her bodily autonomy and her right to have pleasure from her chosen and consensual sexual relationships, and that is a worthwhile thing to say about women (and nonbinary folks, because WOW Bridgerton and Queen Charlotte in general lean hard into a strict gender binary and could maybe remember that nonbinary people exist from time to time) in general. The way that the narrative is constructed, however, the reclaimed autonomy and pleasure scenes in the eighteenth century parts of the story are really overshadowed by the assaulty backstory.

As an editor, the thing I tend to say most on documents is to rebalance to make sure that your main point is highlighted. Lady Danbury's arc was not balanced for that, and the stealthing in the writing didn't help it at all. Lady Danbury gets one single sex scene with Lord Ledger, and a couple of scenes with Charlotte's brother. Contrast that to the four sexual assaults we see, the weirdly toned non-sex but still in bed scene where Lady Danbury comforts her husband in his insecurity about being a new and not-quite-real member of the ton, and the I don't even know how many times Lord Danbury takes blatant, explicit credit for Lady Danbury's triumphs. This is not an arc balanced to celebrate Lady Danbury's freedom and autonomy, this is an arc that quietly hopes you won't notice that it's making a spectacle of violence against a visibly racialized female body.

Let's start with the major assumptions and stereotypes that the Queen Charlotte writer's room had to understand in order to subvert them enough to stealth the sexual assault scenes.

The SA scenes don't look like the SA stereotype.

Please note the very intentional use of the word "stereotype" here. We are talking about expectations of media representations of SA, not the reality, which can and often does look different for every survivor. I am not here to minimize or delegitimize anyone, I'm strictly speaking about media representations and what is expected in them from a mainstream, popular culture perspective. And mainstream popular culture struggles to imagine SA as anything that isn't violent and raises a "hue and cry," to borrow verbiage from medieval laws about SA that also had a way too narrow definition of what constitutes SA. The fact is, Queen Charlotte represents Lady Danbury's repeated assaults as routine, even boring for her, despite their clear unwanted nature and the displeasure they clearly cause her. This is a massive departure from stereotypical SA scenes that know they are SA scenes (I'm not going to get into all the scenes in movies that definitionally are SA, but the film does not treat them as such because they've got some "cute prank" or "boys will be boys" affect happening). The insidious thing here is that the framing of the assaults in Queen Charlotte are not going to automatically read as assaults in a culture that expects representations representations to be violent and shocking. This is going to go over people's heads, and normalizing a stereotype of a very narrow definition of SA causes very real harm.

Plus, the narrative routinization of Lady Danbury's assault actively downplays the trauma and horrificness of being assaulted multiple times. This representation minimizes the day-to-day reality of abusive relationships and nobody wins when that happens. Not to mention that Lady Danbury looking bored and annoyed rather than pained or horrified opens the door for complete assholes to say that "she's fine so it can't be SA." Let's maybe not give assholes and minimizers openings to argue about whether an assault is an assault. Which, just for the record: Lady Danbury was assaulted. She didn't want to have sex, and Lord Danbury had sex with her anyway. That is SA. Anyone arguing that basic fact is getting blocked.

It is also worth noting that the show could have stopped showing these scenes after the first one. If they wanted to keep the pattern going after the first one, there were ample opportunities to simply go, "Lord Danbury's Horny," have Lady Danbury roll her eyes or something and then fade to black or cross-fade to Lady Danbury in the tub. One scene to establish a dynamic can be narratively justified. Multiple explicit SA scenes starts to feel gratuitous and like spectacle real fast.

The SA aftermath scenes don't look like the SA aftermath stereotype.

Again, I'm talking stereotypes of media representations, not reality. The stereotypical aftermath scenes tend to be super emotionally distraught and involve emotional meltdowns, but Queen Charlotte gives us Lady Danbury in her tub scolding her maid for not giving her a head's up about the incoming SA. Besides the screwy power dynamics inherent in that whole encounter, the scene is very much presented as routinized and rote and doesn't even give Lady Danbury the credit of having found a way to cope with a horrific situation. I hate to use Handmaid's Tale (the book, I refuse to watch the show for MY mental health) as a counterexample, but I'm going to because the book handled this better.

After being assaulted by the Commander, Offred returns to her room and massages a contraband butter pat into her face and hands. It is made very clear that this is a self care ritual that contrasts the state-sanctioned, emotionless, ritualized, but still traumatic monthly assault that the handmaids experience. Offred makes it clear that this does not fix the immensely broken system, but that it helps her survive and find comfort. It reminds her that she can still feel good in her body, without anyone else required. That is super not how the baths were framed in Queen Charlotte, and the missed potential there just serves to further underline the way that the SA was buried by the writing. Not only is the assault itself buried, but coping and survival mechanisms and the ability for a woman to feel good in her own skin without requiring sex from a different man are also buried.

I would go so far as to argue that this also undercuts the overall arc of Lady Danbury's narrative, because if you want to show her reclaiming her bodily autonomy, why WOULDN'T you want to show her reclaiming feeling good her skin without a man being involved? Like yes, I'm all for her enjoying sex with Lord Ledger and for her turning down that marriage offer, but those are explicitly tied to other people. Let her be her own person and embody her own physical space! The baths could have been one option for that, and that avenue wasn't explored because the writing was so invested in sneaking the SA under the radar, and highlighting a coping/survival mechanism would have undercut the hell out of that. They could have been working with a stronger, more cohesive narrative arc if they had just handled this differently on a writing level, but instead they undercut girlboss Lady Danbury with her own story.

Racism, in various sundry ways.

This is the part where I remind readers that I am talking about the assumed audience that the Queen Charlotte writer's room was imagining as they wrote the show, not necissarily the real audience that put real eyeballs on the show. I am not accusing YOU of being racist. This is also where I explicitly state my positionality: I am a cishet white woman, so my intention is not to speak FOR BIPOC people, scholars, or survivors. I cannot speak from firsthand experience about living with or experiencing racism. I am drawing on my experince as a doctoral literary and film scholar to identify tropes and sterotypes and to analyze a peice of explicitly fictional media.

Reminders and positionality out of the way, if the assumed audience is a cishet, white, middle class American one, then reality, statistics, and basic math say that a percentage of that assumed audience is racist, and they are not going to give a damn if a Black man sexually assaults a Black woman. They're not. They're just not. They don't see either of those characters as human and they don't care. So that percentage right off the bat isn't going to give a damn about SA in this context. Obviously that's horrific, but Queen Charlotte is not gonna solve systemic racism. In that case, why call it out? Because on some level, making this couple the one with the SA narrative is going to reduce the amount of flak and resistance the show gets for having an SA storyline that is insidiously poorly handled. Again, this is just math. This assumed audience combined with the stealth writing elements also works to minimize people who experience SA, particularly those with minority and intersectional identities, and that is not something that media in 2023 should be doing. It's actively harmful and again, reiterates harmful assumptions and sterotypes that do have repercussions in the real world.

Now, to be clear: I am NOT accusing the writer's room of intentionally going "our audience is racist so we can do this." I'm not. I'm just pointing out that in 2023 America, we cannot ignore the assumed racism in a certain part of the assumed audience.

What I do want to highlight here are two interrelated points from author of The Blood Trials and The Blood Gift, NE Davenport. I'll let her speak for herself here:

Let's define a few things here. Colorism is "prejudice or discrimination especially within a racial or ethnic group favoring people with lighter skin over those with darker skin" (source). Minstrel shows were, in brief, "an American form of theater developed in the early 19th century. The shows were performed by mostly white actors wearing blackface make-up for the purpose of comically portraying racial stereotypes of African Americans by playing the role of black minstrels. There were also some African American performers and black-only minstrel groups that formed and toured. Minstrel shows stereotyped blacks as dim-witted, lazy, buffoonish, cowardly, superstitious, and happy-go-lucky. Each show consisted of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music performances that depicted people specifically of African descent" (source).

To draw on inherently racist and colorist imagery to visually represent the groomer rapist in the show is deeply harmful in that it reiterates racist and colorist tropes and racist and colorist attitudes. I entirely agree with Davenport that there were other ways to visually communicate that Lord Danbury was terrible. Like the grooming. And the routine SA. He did not have to be a colorist, minstrel show-based caricature of racist stereotypes.

Society at large is still bad at both acknowledging and recognizing marital rape.

1993 is the benchmark year for the US (although some states still handled marital rape differently from other legal categories of rape and sexual assault) and Canada when marital rape was criminalized throughout both countries. I am OLDER than marital rape being illegal. North America in general is still working on internalizing the fact that a) marital rape is a thing that can happen at all (and right on the heels of this that a married woman isn't property) and b) recognizing marital rape when it happens.

For Queen Charlotte to portray routine marital rape as routine without doing much to explicitly call out that it's absolutely not ok does not help North America's collective social problem with recognizing, calling out, and stopping marital rape. Portraying it as normalized can cause real-world harm.

It's also not *great* that Lady Danbury was groomed for Lord Danbury and that the hope was that he would drop dead so she wouldn't have to have sex with him anymore. Like that is barely addressed, and Lady Danbury seems to like...self-aware her way out of it? By boning Lord Ledger and turning down Charlotte's brother? Which...even for a fantasy is a stretch and potentially tells survivors that they should have been able to self-actualize their way out of it? This whole thing needed to be thought through a bit more and handled better.

So overall, the Danbury storyline in Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story is the story of a Sierra Leonian princess who was groomed for a racist and colorist caricature and serial sexual assaulter. Lord Danbury routinely sexually assaulted Lady Danbury until he dropped dead (yes, Shonda, I watched Gilmore Girls too, but I don't think going "Asher SHOULD have dropped dead of a heart attack while banging Paris" was the takeaway from that episode), at which point Lady Danbury girlbossed the great experiment into multi-generationhood and had great sex with Lord Ledger.

There was so much poorly handled in the construction of this narrative. The gratuitous onscreen sexual assaults, the racism and colorism, and the poor handling of Lady Danbury's lived experiences of being groomed and assaulted and finding a way to survive really soured what could and should have been Lady Danbury's triumph and the foundation for her sharpening her wit, her wardrobe, and her eye and making herself the most terrifying creature in any given room. And sure, the writing GOT her there...but could we not have done it without sneaking in all the racism and sexual assault? Could we not have done it without reiterating and retelling harmful stereotypes? Could we not have done it without visualizing and simultaneously minimizing repeated acts of violence perpetuated on a black female body?

We can celebrate women being badass without first making a spectacle of and then immediately minimizing their trauma.

[shititbe]

Anyway, HSM2 is about internalized homophobia, and no one can tell me otherwise.

High School Musical is one of the most beloved franchises in the world. Teenagers all over the world grew up watching Troy and Gabriella harmonize together. Three movies, and nearly a decade later it’s still beloved by all. The first film easily forgotten in the ashes of the early 2000’s, the third film stuck in a purgatorial limbo of the rather unfortunate late 2000’s. The second film on the other hand sticks out between the ruckus. 

The second High School Musical film takes place at Sharpay and Ryan’s family country club, during the summer between junior and senior year. The Wildcats are working summer jobs on the country club, often forced to the beck and call of Ryan and Sharpay themselves. Sharpay uses all her prestige to help Troy with college instead of starting at the bottom ( or rather, in the kitchen washing dishes) with his friends. In the time she’s helping Troy, she is also pushing her brother away; replacing him with Troy in their musical number for the talent show, and refusing to hang out with him in preference for Troy. Ryan becomes vengeful to his twin and starts hanging around the Wildcats in the kitchen. At first, he was met with some distasteful looks and words (most of which from Chad). With the help of Kelsey, and her neutral party, Ryan fits in smoothly with the other teenagers, eventually giving the WildCats all dance lessons.

 Throughout the movie, the main conflict continues to be the internal conflict of Troy Bolton. He debates over and over again if he should go through with Sharpay’s shenanigans, or if he wants to “listen to my own heart.”  This of course involves Gabriella, as she is Troy’s love interest. She’s not in the second film except for the beginning, then, where she leaves in the middle of the film - in order to create angst for Troy - then when she shows up again in the finally to sing/rejoin Troy. 

The conflict in the second film  is the combining of Troy’s two worlds. His first - his main world in the first movie, that hence became his secondary world - which is represented by Chad. Then his secondary world - which becomes his main world in this movie - which is represented by Ryan. Chad represents Troy’s masculinity, or his more idealized version of himself. Ryan represents Troy’s femininity or his current version of reality. These two worlds collide in the iconic song “I don’t dance”.  

Since this movie - and hence this scene - came out in the early 2000’s, a lot of the innuendoes went over people's heads. Luckily, as the children who watched this movie grew older and more experienced, and the world became more accepting, we’re able to see this song for what it is. 

Before getting into the lore and symbolism of the iconic “I Don’t Dance” sequence, context is needed. For most of human history, homosexuality was seen as a sin in all places except ancient times (see: Greece and Japan). The modern age is the most accepting on all fronts, such as sexual orientation, race, and religion. In the early 2000’s, High School Musical director Kenny Ortega was not publicialy out yet. He wouldn’t be till 2014. 

Originally, while writing this, my first thought was  that Kenny - the director - would be using Troy as a y/n type character to project his insecurities and struggles with masculinity, and what that means in defining his orientation and societal views that would be placed upon him. Then, it came to me later that this is in fact not the case, Troy (and Gabriella - who is in fact a y/n character for the female audience) is more of a character for a man of his time, confused with his own ideals of masculinity and the views of society because, “oh god, I can’t like theater/drama because only queer people and girls like it!” The second point is pushed further with the Troy and Sharpay sub-plot. Sharpay tries to further Troy’s career as a basketball player, though that’s not what he wants anymore, and Troy is no longer sure if that is what he ever wanted to begin with (enter the song “Bet on it” and the hilarious meme “no dad, I’m giving up on your dream”). 

Keeping these things in mind - Kenney’s queerness, and Troy’s struggle to realize you can in fact sing and be a heterosexual, wow, revolutionary - it became clear to me that Kenney’s y/n characters were Ryan and Chad. 

For those who aren’t into the arts, or find them too difficult after a singular attempt thinking they could write a world class novel on the first go, let me be the first to tell you every author has a y/n character. First, for those who don’t know what y/n stands for, it’s a popular fanfiction trope where a writer will write a story about a character dating, being friends, and so on, with the reader. The y/n stands for “your name” so anyone can be the main character in this story at any time. For a writer of mainstream fictional work, such as High School Musical, Game Of Thrones, Lord Of The Rings, Pride and Prejudice, Harry Potter, Hunger Games, even most comics. Now, most writers or directors aren’t going to be as obvious as having a character not named (or named y/n) or even named Jane (looking at you Jane Austin), the y/n character of many mainstream authors/directors/comic artists and so on is usually the character they feel or have given the most attributes similar to themselves. 

It’s the same reason people have favourite characters. You see a fictional character and you either 1. Want to Bob the Builder them, 2. Some sort of weird sex thing, or 3. See more/the most of yourself in this character. Number three - thankfully - is usually the main reason. Some people just create their own favourite characters. An even easier way to think about this, is just projection baby, that’s psych 101.   

Before I went off on a small tangent of fictional works and how human emotion plays into creating them (except anything Disney has made in the past decade, and no you can’t change my mind on that) I mentioned that Chad and Ryan are Kenney’s y/n characters. As a queer person myself, it’s clear for me to see the different struggles each of these characters face and how these reflect the queer experience. 

So, let’s finally get into it. 

Ryan, without it being explicitly said is clearly a character of what people in the early 2000s think a gay man is. He is effeminate, wearing bright coloured outfits with lots of accessories - namely his signature hats - he is also in the theater department doing musicals, and passive/subservient to any of his twin sisters' wills. Yes, now we know gay men aren’t just feminized men, but in the early 2000’s a gay man who can do "masculine" things like change their car oil, like sports, and so on, break the "effeminate" stereotype thus confused many cishet people. Sharpay is painted as more confident - or, for sake of comparability - masculine to her twin in the first movie, and most of the second movie. Making Ryan a bit of her dog who would do anything to get by - painting Ryan as lesser than human, once more, playing into the homophobia of the early 2000's.     

Despite the clear stereotypes playing into his character, Ryan is consistently one of the most confident characters in the movie. The other, being his sister of course. This confidence in himself is what gravitates the other characters towards him, either by being intimidated (Troy, thinking Ryan and Gabriella were a thing), or admiration (Chad, by the end of “I don’t dance”). 

Chad, on the other hand, is a whole different ball game. While he is confident in the first movie, and the first portion of the second movie, he begins to break more and more when Ryan becomes a more integral part of the Wildcat group. To keep in mind, Chad is also the most vocal about his distaste for Troy’s artistic past-time. When the other Wildcats join Ryan and begin learning how to dance for the talent show at the end of the movie, Chad is also the most vocal about his distaste. The baseball game where “I don’t dance” takes place, is the climax of Chad’s arc and his turn towards acceptance to Ryan/Troy’s hobbies. 

Of course, there is more to the “I don’t dance” sequence than just Chad’s realization - the exact one Troy comes to terms with in the second movie as well - of “oh my god I don’t have to be gay to enjoy stereotypical ‘feminine’ things.” That is the main part of the song though, that and all the sexual tension. 

Going back to what I’ve stated previously, Chad and Ryan are Kenney’s projection or y/n characters. Let me do a small recap before we get into the nitty gritty of the famous “I don’t dance” video. 

Thinking back to the first few paragraphs, I stated that Kenney wasn’t publicly out till 2014, about 7 years after the second movie came out. This could be due to the fact that a) it’s the early 2000’s and everyones still very homophobic, or b) self-doubt that comes with the queer experience. The most likely reason is a mixture of both of these. Because of this, Ryan is the more self-assured version, or idealized version of Kenney that he wants to be. Ryan is confident, never being swayed about his lifestyle (could be read as: sexuality) even though Chad - and most of the wildcats in the first movie - put him through relentless “teasing” and humiliation. He’s confident, almost to a fault, he’s sure of himself, and yet still reaches out a hand to Chad and the other wildcats to show them that they’re just being, kinda dick-ish. 

Every queer person wants to be Ryan. Despite his heavily stereotyped characterization, I personally believe he is one of the stronger written characters in the movies, mainly due to Kenney putting the time in to really make Ryan feel like a real person, to give himself some sort of relief of his own anxieties, a chance to see the world through a person who truly has no fear. Unlike Kenney himself. 

This is where Chad comes in. 

Chad is seen as “confident” in the first movie, the second Troy “leaves” basketball though, all that confidence comes crashing down. His best friend has another hobby - one he thinks is “not right” (it’s okay, you can say gay), - they wont be spending all their time together (first, can you say dependent relationship much, yikes).Chad’s defining characteristic up until their fight that instigate act three of the second movie, is being Troy’s best friend. I’m going to take this as if this were truly the case, and not a decently written character arch. Some people base themselves around their friends and their whole identity on being a friend, that they lose sight of themselves, this mainly in high school of course, when your whole world is really nothing but school, and friends. Newly developed independence is there, but that’s scary, so instead of worrying about the future, cling to something that’s reliable. I’ve seen this happen, mainly at the end of high school, when the “real world” is coming a bit too close for comfort. This could generally be the case if a person is lonely, but for timeline sake I’m going to say Chad has got some anxiety about graduating (considering the second movie takes place the summer of junior year). 

His lashing out at Troy’s hobbies and at Troy’s neglectful friendship, make more sense with that background, and are seen more in the second movie where Troy begins spending all his spare time with Sharpay (trying to collect that BAG!). Chad - and others (read: father) - insists that music is not a feasible career option, and Troy should just stick with basketball (like...that is a feasible career option). The tension Chad creates in the studio only grows when the other wildcats decide to take up Ryan’s offer for dance lessons and move from the kitchen, to helping out with the talent show. (Next essay idea: how high school musical two was really about class all along, cause Jesus). 

 Chad is the less obvious option for a y/n character. Though again, the 2000’s were not as cool people like to pretend they are. Chad - for Kenney - represents what he actually feels, this fear of being rejected for how he is and how he chooses to live his life/lifestyle, so he sticks to something reliable. Ryan is new, and exciting, and confident in a way that Kenney/Chad wish they could be, but in order for that to happen they need to understand that maybe people are complex creatures, and can enjoy multiple hobbies (aka: the same lesson Troy is teaching the viewers, but far less boring). But, for Kenney/Chad facing that thought and that realization is scary, and thus, they lash out at anyone (read this paragraph as: Chad mad jealous of Ryan cause Ryan bomb as fuck). 

All this build up, finally comes ahead in the employee baseball match 

                                                       ******

The baseball game is probably the most memorable scene in the whole High School Musical franchise (minus Sharpay’s “Fabulous” solo, but that’s also from the same movie, and it’s kinda rude to give what’s already the best more points); the tension in the scene, and what it implies makes it the best written segment of all three movies, let alone the most entertaining. 

Some things to keep in mind from our background information: Chad is missing his bestie and struggling with what being “masculine” really means for him and others. Ryan of course makes this confusing, because the traditional method is being thrown out the window. In short, Chad has internalized homophobia, and Ryan being open - or as open as Disney would let him - is causing all sorts of problems. 

Despite the song, “I don’t dance” being logged into our collective skulls for all eternity (you’re probably humming it right now, sorry about that), the very brief interaction of Ryan and Chad before the game is lost on the public consciousness. The two are clearly comfortable with each other, though the distaste seems to be on Chad’s side more than Ryans. So, the two start playfully jabbing at each other before deciding to do a bat toss to see who will be in the outfield first. 

Before they begin the bat toss, Ryan says “You don’t think dancing takes some game?” Chad then very clearly checks him out, doing a simple but effective ‘drag-your-eyes-over-them-top-to-bottom-then-smile’ and says “you got game?” (Seen in gif below) 

I don’t know how much you know about sex metaphors and how many of those baseball has in it (seriously though, it’s a lot), but with the bat toss, Ryan’s hand ended up on top, and Chad’s under Ryan’s. Let’s ignore this for now, it’ll be implied again later. Ryan’s team starts out in the outfield because he won the bat toss, and hence, the song officially starts. 

The first lyrics (ignoring the chores of “hey batter batter, hey batter batter, swing”) is 

I'll show you that it's one and the same

Baseball, dancing, same game

It's easy

Step up to the place, start swingin  

This part is sung by Ryan, who is taunting Chad out in the outfield. Before the game, as stated, Chad was taunting Ryan about his lack of “game” (both sexual and not sexual metaphor are implied), and now, Ryan has turned those tables around. Baseball - is seen as more masculine than dancing, not as masculine as football or basketball, but it’s up there. Chad is someone who cares about his masculinity, enough to the point that Ryan playing baseball makes him loose his mind. Makes him question his own personal definition of masculinity, if you will. 

Ryan says, “baseball, dancing, same game,” impyling that, to him, baseball and dancing are one and the same. That is baffling to Chad, cause well, how can something meant for girls even be close to something meant for boys. 

Chad comes back with: 

 I wanna play ball now, and that's all

This is what I do

It ain't no dance that you can show me, yeah

This only proves my previous point. 

I had a conversation with myself about this, and I’ve decided not to include it in this essay, but a second essay may or may not be possible. Basically the premise - the dancing/”musical” moments of High School Musical are conjured up images by those meant to see them (ie: like a visual hallucination, but, not really) but this scene kinda poo-poos that idea. 

Now, the thing I am talking about is Ryan and Chad’s  peacocking at each other during the time they sing these lyrics. The movements they’re making could be mistaken for dancing - as we automatically assume it is because of the title and themes of the movie - or it could be them just getting ready for the baseball game. Ryan swings his leg over the pitcher's mound, tossing the ball up and down into his glove, making wavy hand gestures, etc. Chad brushes off his gloves, swings his legs, hits the bat on each foot, and so on. 

For the peacocking, Chad makes a mock of the ballerina foot stance before strutting over to the home plate. Ryan laughs at this, which earns quite the smirk from Chad himself (see gif below). 

This is when it becomes a conversation.   

You'll never know - R

Oh I know - Ch

If you never try - R

There's just one little thing - Ch

That stops me every time, yeah - Ch

Come on - Ch

When Chad says “Come on” it’s when Ryan throws the baseball at him, starting the game, and giving Chad’s team their first strike of the game (get it, it’s funny). Now, obviously we need to talk about the “there’s just one little thing that stops me every time.” As a queer person, I assure you, two of the things that kept me from living my Best Life were 1) my own ignorance of what asexuality was and 2) the fear that everyone I love would hate me for who I am, and what I have no control over. 

Sorry to get deep like that on main, but, can any other queer person say different? Obviously, your first point may differ, but my point still stands. In the video/scene there is a very short moment (to which I have condensed into a gif for you all, you’re welcome, and I’m sorry about the quality in advance), of the camera moving over to Chad’s team (or his friends in this case since it’s an employee baseball game) as he says this line (gif below). 

I will not be explaining the use of subtly in this essay, but I’m sure you get the metaphor Kenney is trying to use. If not, let me spell it out for you in very simple words. This song has a lot of sexual innuendos (as mentioned pervious with the baseball bat scene and still, more to come), with that in mind, and clearly queer themes at play (as mentioned before, again), this scene only shows Chad isn’t as straight as he leads on. His fear/phobia of Ryan/the arts come from a much deeper place. 

In shorter, and much simpler terms: Chad queer. 

But, let’s get back to the boy's conversation. 

I don't dance - Ch

I know you can - R 

Not a chance, no - Ch 

If I could do this, well, you could do that - R 

Translation: “If I can do this weird, sweaty, dirty, Male thing without blowing a fuse, you can and should be able to dance just fine.” 

But I don't dance - Ch 

Hit it out of the park - Both 

I don't dance - Ch

I say you can - R

There's not a chance, oh - Ch

Slide home, you score, swingin on the dance floor - Both

I don't dance, no - Ch  (This is just the chores, you’ll see it multiple times throughout the essay, I just figured if the song is going to be in your head, go all the way right). 

Two-steppin, now you're up to bat - R

Bases loaded, do your dance - R 

Here we are with the baseball metaphors you’ve all been waiting for ladies and gentlemen. Girls, gays, and non-binary pals. For those who have somehow managed a sheltered existence with access to the internet, lemme help you. Ryan is talking about “loaded bases” both in the context of the game (where it shows each base has one person from Chad’s team on them) and in the term of sex. While you go out there dating - while it’s mostly douche bags and people using it ironically - your nosey friends may ask you how far you got. 

“First, second, or third base?” They may ask. Or something like, “oh wow, did you get to home plate/base?” These are simply the rankings of the stages of a sexual relationship. First - kissing, sometimes just handholding, Second - making out, some light groping, Third - full on groping, no clothes come off, but it gets close. While each person has different boundaries, these are the general accepted definitions for the bases. 

Home base is obviously full blown sexual intercourse. Since Chad has his “bases loaded” it means he’s done all these things before, just never gone completely to sexual intercourse with someone - in the terms of the song and the history we’ve already established, it’s most likely a male character. This is only proven by Chad’s uncomfortable nature towards Ryan (internalized Homophobia, thank you, returning theme) but his easy, and cocky personality towards everyone else. “bUt thAt DoEsnT pRovE” hush, that’s the final cherry on top. Remember this conversation. 

It's easy - R  

Again. Previous points have been made.  

Take your best shot, just hit it - Ch 

I've got what it takes, playin my game - Ch

So you better spin that pitch - Ch 

You're gonna throw me, yeah - Ch 

I'll show you how I swing - Ch

Ah, the famous “I’ll show you how i swing” a very strong baseball metaphor for everyone. Keeps queer people from defining themselves to dangerous (straight) people, and, well, that’s it actually. This term is mostly used by bi/pan people, though if you want to stay in the closet or are in a dangerous place, it is also used to subtly tell other queer people you are in fact, not straight. My favourite is when this term came into play when President Buchanan got elected in 1856 (for those that don’t know, he’s the first and only gay president). 

You'll never know - R

Oh I know - Ch

If you never try - R 

There's just one little thing - Ch

That stops me every time, yeah - Ch 

This is again, the same lyric as before it doesn’t pan, and the tone is much different. The camera stays on Chad as he says this line, meaning he’s reflecting, he is now his own problem, the person that is keeping him back. His friends are not on his mind anymore, which is good, Ryan’s Gay Propaganda has been working. 

Come on - Ch

I don't dance - Ch

I know you can - R

Not a chance, no, no - Ch

If I could do this, well, you could do that - R

But I don't dance - Ch

Hit it out of the park - R

I don't dance - Ch

I say you can - R

There's not a chance, oh no - Ch

Slide home, you score, swingin on the dance floor - Both 

I don't dance, no - Ch

Lean back, tuck it in, take a chance - R

Swing it out, spin around, do the dance - R

I wanna play ball, not dance hall - Ch

I'm makin a triple, not a curtain cal - Chl

I can prove it to you til you know it's true - R

'Cause I can swing it, I can bring it to the diamond too - R

You're talkin a lot, show me what you got - Ch

Again, like the beginning of this song, this is a heavy base for flirting and sexual tension, which this song is drowning in. 

Stop swinging - both

Hey - both

This is the part where they all start a flash mob in the middle of the baseball diamond. Again, alluding to the conversation I had to myself earlier, this only proves my own theory as no one takes notice of this. But, that’s not this essay, this is where I mention how close Chad and Ryan are at the end of the group dance.  

Come on, swing it like this - both

Oh, swing - both

Jitterbug, just like that - both

That's what I mean, that's how you swing - both

You make a good pitch but I don't believe - both 

Here is yet another (and the final) sexual innuendo. This is actually a rather quick one. Pitching in queer culture is considered the person who tops (because queer people even had to straight-ify their sex lives to “top” and “bottom”), this is the person who is giving, if you know what I’m saying. 

I say you can - R

I know I can't - Ch

I don't dance - Ch

You can do it - R

I don't dance, no - Ch 

 Here is where that mosh pit ends, and how they get a little too close to comfort. 

Nothing to it, atta boy, atta boy, yeah - both

The rest of this song is simply a mash-up of the baseball game being finished, and this lovely gem. 

Now, clearly, Chad’s self conscious nature towards his sexuality is gone, he’s sitting close - if not squishing - Ryan, and talking to him like they’ve been friends forever. Take note of the change of close, most likely due to all the tension at the end of the song, and maybe a little of Chad’s own natural human curiosity built in. Now, I leave you with this note: 

If there is anything that confirms all this more, its Chad’s girlfriend wearing the pride colours. 

Also note: this could also be seen as a friend helping his bro discover his sexuality and fighting internalized homophobia, but, that’s ignoring the sexual tension, so go off I guess. 

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.  

Watch the full thing here

[unproduciblesmackdown]

Genuine question what is billions even about I see clips all the time and I cannot figure out what the plot is besides like “business” but I am very much in love w Taylor Mason (i think that’s their last name?) so I am intrigued ...

oh i’m so glad you asked

yeah it’s not at all a Just You thing, not only do we often only post about a particular slice of the series, it’s just REALLY difficult to get (or provide. but i’m always up for the challenge) a sense of what Billions is like as a series like, genre wise, and re: the plot, my god, every [usually more than 50 min but less than an hour] episode is a journey, in that So much will have happened. it moves at a Pace, i can tell you. but you know, good news in that it’s not really necessary to explain every plot thread ever, b/c it’s as much about its Themes or what have you

the stats rundown is billions is a weekly showtime tv series partway through its 5th season (12 episodes per season, currently they are producing the last half of s5 but had been on pandemic production hiatus for the past year, we do not yet know when the rest of s5 will air, s6 was greenlit a while ago) this isn’t really need to know for this question lol, but you don’t need to Not know either

the like, content Rundown is that yeah, it’s business, mostly high finance, although one of the main characters is always doing Legal Stuff (don’t care really b/c that side of things is not generally as relevant to, yes, taylor mason, who Makes the series). the kind of overarching Theme / premise is that the show is about like, here’s these Conflicts between people who are wielding some power in various ways, looking at the motivations of the individuals involved / the Cause And Effect web of these conflicts between them, e.g. how the consequences / fallout of one Power Play Maneuver will affect someone else’s storyline and result in them executing their own maneuvers, and of course, the pitfalls of all of this. more specifically, the series kicks off with the two (then (taylor is introduced in season 2) mainest characters, Axe, ceo of a hedge fund, and Chuck, some kind of lawyer who decides to go after axe b/c axe thinks he’s hot shit (true) and chuck is like ohhh i gotta do something about this guy. so there’s an Unending Conflict, axe vs chuck, an ongoing back and forth series of small or more overarching battles, and of course sometimes alliances, because there’s a Lot of characters on this show and we’re in season 5 so there’s been plenty of other Conflicts introduced besides this particular ongoing war. also, uh oh, chuck’s wife wendy works for the hedge fund axe runs! that’s just a whole wrench in things. as some sort of like, in house therapist performance coach sort of deal, thanks wendy, she’s also fairly a Main Character

axe is somewhat more relevant for our purposes b/c that’s that Finance side of the show via which taylor is introduced. but yeah both axe and chuck are exasperating lmfao like, this isn’t a show where it’s about the Likeability of whatever main character where like, you’re rooting for the obviously righteous / justified person or anything, it’s more about being along for the ride where you get to know Why people are engaging in these conflicts for sure, but like, unless you’re one of plenty of fans who maybe aren’t bringing the most Insight to the show who find any of this like, aspirational Epic Winner stuff like hell yeah axe or chuck as the Cool Guy Who Deserves To Win lmfao, being along for the ride is knowing that you’re just getting to watch this unfolding mess, so that’s “fun” lol

to get more to the point, yeah Taylor Mason is again the best part of the series lol, they’re introduced early in s2 as a Very Talented young iintern at axe capital (axe’s hedge fund) who, yknow, part of what makes axe an Eventful character to center things around is he’s (sometimes) capable re: all these strategic finance maneuvers, and also all “i don’t play by the rules,” which can often mean like, the actual rules like “no insider trading please” or more kinda implicit moral rules like “don’t keep taking Business Advantage over people’s deaths,” and here means that even though taylor is this early to mid 20something intern with no experience in finance who’s not even, at that juncture, necessarily planning to stay in the industry, he’s like yeah they’re valuable and i’m not gonna hold them back from that potential / opportunities * just because they’re a 20something new to the industry intern who definitely doesn’t behave in the Usual Way around here and is also a canon nonbinary character, thanks ( * you might not believe it, but axe does not proceed to only ever be a potential encouraging, opportunity creating ally* (*although, one nice thing is that they....almost always....have axe adamantly hold everyone who works with him to respecting taylor as a nonbinary person, at least in how they address taylor. b/c taylor Does get misgendered periodically, which can be exhausting, but they also aren’t exactly striving to hold it to what might be most “””realistic””” so like, taylor isn’t subject to transphobia and misgendering All The Time either) and so taylor very quickly goes beyond internship at axe cap, to the extent that when, at the end of season 2, axe effectively leaves them in charge of the whole fund when his own fuckups mean he temporarily Can’t helm axe cap

aaand then s3 starts off with taylor running things but has axe return Officially in charge soon enough, so there’s problems there, in that axe is now pulling taylor Back, and like, axe is alllllll about his ego, so it’s like, of course he’d Want taylor to have been able to successfully run axe cap while he couldn’t, since it’s his fund, but then of course he’s also mad about it b/c he needs everyone, like taylor, to know he’s better & more winning than them. and taylor doesn’t appreciate now being more sabotaged and stifled and that, like, if they’re mad about being treated this way, axe is just gonna be mad about That b/c you know, why aren’t they Only grateful to their mentor or deferential to his Skill And Experience, as well as the fact that no matter how much of an Ally you are to him, he’ll be mad if you’re not unilaterally loyal, aka if he fucks you over you can’t be mad about it or that’s actually a way you’re wronging Him, and you’re also wronging him if yknow, you say he can’t/shouldn’t just do what he wants, or do anything that to him implies you don’t think he’s objectively the Best most Winning and Deserving guy in whatever regards, like, if you’re associated with someone who makes him feel insecure in his superiority for one moment, and/or who he thinks doesn’t also recognize his superiority or something, he’ll be mad at you.......the Conflicts can arise v easily around here with this beloved character walking around. so, yeah, whereas season 2 for taylor is more like wow taylor you’ve got all this potential and value here, in season 3 taylor’s sure got reason to question their future at axe cap (see this post resident Billions / Taylor Mason Pro soph made last night) and, when not only are they and axe just more often going head to head over what they want here, there’s also this added egregious conflict of “taylor starts seeing this guy oscar who’s also in finance (but not at axe cap) and when they ask axe for some input on a matter via which they intended to help oscar out, axe uses that Information taylor just used to fuck oscar over to his own advantage, and when taylor is like ‘what the hell’ axe is just like ‘what’d you expect!! i gotta be me!!! if you expected anything different, that’s on you, and if you Did expect me to do this, that’s also on you’ because i’m sure it’s a surprise to hear that axe considers himself this like, force of nature where all his feelings and motivations and justifications are Objective and Correct, and then taylor has to tell oscar what happened and naturally this ends the relationship, to their evident further unhappiness” and oops, season 3 ends with taylor having started their own hedge fund.

i could give a tl;dr for what happens over the course of s4 & (so far in) s5, but i think the s2/s3 arcs are kinda the Essential Lore for explaining this character who crashes into the show (not in that their character tends to crash, their arrival and presence is clearly somewhat of a shakeup re: the norm, but they themself are all about staying balanced and Not being driven by tumultuous emotional impulses or anything like that, *cough, the characters they are quite a Foil to in this way*) and quickly ascends to Main Charactership. (also just remembered the other stats note that taylor is played by asia kate dillon, who is themself nonbinary.) another element that is a lot of fun re: taylor is that they have like, the series’ best Friendship lol, the show is not very conducive to a bunch of characters having a bunch of heartwarming relationships, though they sure Do appreciate those characters and let us see a lot of Dynamics at play even beyond the “these people are locked in conflict” plots and characterful interactions and moments for their own sakes, and Alliances, even friendships, sure are the other side of the Ongoing Conflicts coin here. but what i’m getting around to is that taylor gets to be good buds with mafee, a Guy who was working at axe cap already in season 1, who, along with ben kim (Another Guy At Axe Cap in S1, who we are also fans of) is like, one of the actually nice(r) people around there, and who is just like. such this Hapless Cishet Dude lmfaooo but he also happens to be the guy overseeing taylor’s (and presumably others’) internship, and is yknow, maybe kinda conflicted about “i’ve Been an actual employee this whole time and there goes an intern rocketing past me” but is also Supportive towards taylor, and taylor in turn is an Ally to him, and they are Friends, and when taylor starts their own fund, Taylor Mason Capital, mafee is the person from axe cap who helps them do it and leaves axe cap to work for them there. there’s also a part in s4, after an arc in the middle of the season ended up with taylor taking quite an emotional L, mafee has gone and confronted Responsible Parties over it and, naturally, ended up in a charity interfund Boxing Match (which, a] billions is deliberately Wild plenty of times in both its Elevated Dialogue style but also just like, things that happen lol but b] apparently that’s something that can & does happen in real life in hedge fund world. absolutely bizarre to learn this kind of stuff) taylor kinda gives him this pep talk including “asking you to come with me (to TMC, mase cap, their fund) was the best decision i ever made” and even back then, when we’d just started paying attention to the show fairly recently and weren’t exactly familiar with everyone and everything going on, it was like oh i Gotta post that clip lmao

there are many other side characters, this is a very Populated show, including like, recurring characters, people liable to be introduced at various points who might become regulars Or make repeat appearances but more periodically Or be around for part of a season, but naturally also i am mentioning one specific side character of Winston (No Official Last Name), who is a Quant, aka a quantitative rather than fundamental analyst, who first appeared in One Scene at the start of season 3 when taylor was looking to hire some quants for a project, but did not succeed, and the character (then only Quant Kid 2) was only meant to have that one appearance, but delightfully everyone wanted him back and they wrote more material for him asap. taylor later brings him on to their quant project, which is revealed to be part of what ensures they can start their own fund, and in season 4 winston is apparently the head of the quant team at mase cap, and he continues to appear as taylor’s main Quant. could go into a long (and, as he’s not a Main Character and it’s easier to cover his material, very thorough) tangent there lol but you’re asking about taylor and i’m only bringing up winston b/c technically he Is relevant there lmfao but also, i have to, and [tfw this side character quant who was originally only going to appear in one brief scene was the reason you got into this series in the first place and now it’s like well, We’re Here Forever, and also, taylor mason is The character]

natch you must’ve noticed if you’re sending me an ask about billions, but if you like taylor mason you Gotta be following @nothingunrealistic the #1 Tayficianado and who has also recently nobly finished Actually Properly Watching Billions and who can give you all kinds of info about the character / series, there’s A LOT to cover and it’s kinda impossible to convey some stuff w/o simply experiencing things yourself firsthand lmfao but also, we think about these characters and this show every day for like, two years and running, so. as you can see......totally willing to talk about it at any time to any extent lol

[dramaturgist]

yknow rereading percy jackson as someone older than i was when i first read it is really making me rethink my views on a lot of shit that happened in the series, especially rick’s writing.. like Yes kudos to rick for representation yay but he is very very far from perfect

1. he doesn’t do timelines or continuity of ANY sort he messes up his own backstories and changes things hes written about in the past if theyre convenient to him for whatever hes writing (like nicos age) 

2. his minority characters are often under-researched  sometimes it feels like his attempts at representation are just.. stereotypes which hes “remixed” and tried to repackage into a Funky And Fresh character to add diversity to the series or whatever. dont add minority characters for diversity, do it bc its mf realistic and not everyone is white and cishet

3. and the main characters are still... white  everyone always talks about how amazing the series is for representation and sure it is but the Good Guys and Heroes in the end are, in fact, straight white people. he barely focuses on the other characters’ plots and normally half-asses them unless theyre his own personal faves lmao  plus, he has a history of killing off female and poc characters for sake of “plot development” (silena, bianca, zoe, charles, ethan, so many more) PLUS plus is it just me or is drews characterisation really uncomfortable to read?? “bitchy asian girl” is such an overused trope at this point and it annoys me so much

4. he does things more for shock factor than actual plot LISTEN. LISTEN TO ME. i am SICK and TIRED of creators killing off their characters or adding random betrayal arcs of WHATEVER just for the shock factor that they’ll get out of doing it. its not funny or cool!! theres a difference between when a character dies out of plot requirement (say, luke dying out of sacrifice) and when a character dies for nothing but Oh Wow A Death Ahahah Classic Rick  yes this is about jason. yes i’m bitter. there was no reason he had to die but u know what. im gonna say it. better him than leo/piper 

5. there’s so much unneeded fanservice and for what percy and jasons rivalry is... its so...... homie do u really think that these two boys have egos fragile enough that theyre gonna go full chad and say this town aint big enough for the two of us??? neither of them has a single malicious bone in their body and there is NO REASON FOR THEM TO HAVE ANY CONFLICT. at all. just let them be friends i beg 

6. he does not know how to write teenagers,  more like he doesn’t know how to write characters who aren’t straight white teenagers but. i digress. anyway not a single teen in that book is in any shape or form realistic except perhaps the original pjo series? i feel like rick tends to brush off emotions when it comes to his characters EXTREMELY easily.. like in the more recent books, characters r sad for like one second and then everythings sunshine and rainbows again. (the lightning thief musical did a MUCH better job at showing teen emotions than the books, honestly.)  also reyna’s characterisation in the new book disgusts me... so much.... 

7. and he overcompensates. so much. rick. it is ok. you are a 40 year old straight white man. we understand u. u dont have to try and use cool hippie teen language. its ok. please chill out it is so unbearably cringey

8. he cannot acknowledge his own mistakes or learn from them fans have been yelling for YEARS about how a lot of things in his books are misrepresented/harmful but theres been complete silence on his part and i am. so irritated. also that shit hes trying to pull w reyna annoys me so much i cant believe he went to the extent of calling out people for having? headcanons? anyway reyna lesbian

i dont know how to end this so uh. thanks for reading if u made it this far 

[beanarie]

Would you recommend white collar? And if you do, how would you describe the show and it's tone?

hey wow thanks for asking 🙂

short answer: yes, for sure, highly recommend! white collar is, for the most part, a fun, light show with likable characters that's engaging without requiring a lot of thought. 

long answer, because taste is subjective: maybe! i think a good litmus test is if you love leverage, you'll probably enjoy white collar. they're very similar in tone and structure with lots of charming banter, found family themes, competence kink, and pulling cons. white collar is more blatant copaganda, though. they're explicitly working for the FBI and, apart from some corruption plots and the recurring reminder that the agency considers neal an asset first and a person second, the show doesn't delve all into structural problems inherent in the system. there's even a couple of moments where mozzie, a conspiracy theorist, is presented as ridiculous for saying that the government listens in on people or oversteps in other ways. 

that isn't to say it's a completely mindless show. they liked playing with moral grayness and how the connection between peter and neal causes each of them to shift on the spectrum, mostly through peter's determination to turn neal's work release into a mentoring program and in the ways peter is willing to bend the rules and look the other way when he knows neal has crossed the line. one thing i love is how they use mozzie as a foil for neal. even though he slowly lets down some of his barriers regarding associating with law enforcement and doesn't hesitate to help with numerous cases for the FBI, mozzie has no intention of ever going legit and he thinks all the moral complexity angst is ridiculous.

it's a show about cishet white dudes created by afaik cishet white dudes, and that needs to be taken into account. however! i loved it because these two guys are very good at what they do and they blatantly adore each other despite having very different priorities. also they're surrounded by really super endearing people (several of whom are Black) who love them and have growing, developing connections with each other. with the exception of one underwritten plot device character, they made a concerted effort to make the women dynamic, three-dimensional, and just as much a part of the action as the men. the cases are okay, some more interesting than others. the season long arcs tend to get convoluted, with one maguffin leading to another leading to a shadow organization and whatnot. there's always something going on. 

full disclosure, my enjoyment started decreasing in season four, and the end was sort of unsettling (i'm not angry about it, i'm just sort of "...hm"), but the characters and their interplay still made it worth sticking it out. recently they announced a revival of some kind and i'm really curious to see how things shake out in that! it's on hulu, for the record.

[bronanlynch]

thursday again no (?) problem

listening: been in a Rilo Kiley mood recently, the song The Good That Won’t Come Out hits me in a place, love a soft little bop that makes me feel all melancholy

reading: I’m about two thirds of the way through The Steel Crow Saga by Paul Kreuger, I’m enjoying it, the worldbuilding is cool and I care abt the characters. the quote on the back compares it to Avatar but Imo it’s more like Korra specifically than AtLA (there are cars and trains and guns, and also people trying to rebuild their countries after years of occupation and dealing with the aftermath of colonialism). however it has a significantly more coherent grasp on political themes than Korra does (I love Korra but. hmm. I have some opinions abt some of the writing decisions). also most of the main characters aren’t straight, and there’s a trans man who is, admittedly, kind of an asshole but I like him on principle bc there are so few trans mlm in fantasy, so it’s unfortunate that this one is aggressively a monarchist but he’s also sleeping with the prince which is one of the more valid reasons to be a monarchist so he’s valid I guess

watching: so I finished Gundam Wing, and my review is that it would be a good show if the characters had consistent motivations and coherent emotional arcs. I care enough about some of the character because they have enough potential for me to want more. as far as I can tell there’s not really a thematic message beyond “war is bad but people enjoy fighting,” because most characters fall somewhere on the spectrum between “war is good because people naturally enjoy fighting, therefore fighting is beautiful” “peace is good but only if you get there by destroying all of your enemies first so there’s no one left to fight you” “war is bad which means I need to do war crimes and/or let war crimes happen so that everyone sees how fucked up war is” and “fighting at all ever is bad even if fascists are invading your country, the right thing to do in that situation is surrender and let them turn you into a figurehead”

the politics are wildly inconsistent and also, Imo, not great. don’t understand why the group trying to fight back against the organization who conquered the entire earth by force are somehow the bad guys, except that they inexplicably put some asshole who changed sides like 5 times in charge of their entire operation, and he inexplicably wants to blow up the entire earth in order to show people why war is bad. seriously.

there’s also a weird emphasis on heterosexual love as the most important thing to strive for, despite none of the m/f relationships getting any development whatsoever and the only relationships that seem to actually matter are familial or ~the bond between fellow warriors

and then the ending feels very abrupt and like. suddenly everything is supposed to be fine now because it was all just a misunderstanding and no one actually wanted to fight a war, we were all just doing war crimes to show how bad war is, so never mind all those people who died or the child soldiers who were traumatized along the way. and maybe the way that most of the plot feels like it was meaningless now that everyone has just suddenly realized that they should stop fighting is meant to be a commentary on war meaningless. maybe. or maybe they should have written a more coherent plot and a more convincing ending. because that interpretation doesn’t really track with all the emphasis on how cool and important the Gundam pilots are, so maybe this show is just falling into “fighting is beautiful/wow cool robot” line of thinking that it was trying to critique

HOWEVER, a counterpoint and also subtle plug for my ttrpg/Friends at the Table/mech anime twitter: there sure are lots of dynamics that give me gay vibes

also watching: that Supernatural clip. you know the one. I have an entire essay in me about how straight people fundamentally don’t understand what coming out means or how it works or why we do it, but everything about Cas ““speaking his truth”“ and how that’s the happiest he thinks he can ever be even though both he and the text of the script say that his feelings are unrequited is such out of touch cishet bullshit. coming out, in gay media for/by straight people, is usually framed as like, the end goal and something that we do for its own sake or so that we can be ~authentic or whatever the fuck. which, at least in my experience, is just. not how it works. and maybe I’m missing something here, because I do not feel like I’m being “fake” by not being out to everyone I meet, and also that when I lie about my identity for my own comfort and safety that’s 100% fine and valid, actually. but Imo coming out is just as much, if not more, about gaining access to community support and resources and potential relationships. you don’t come out to your crush so that you can live your truth or whatever the fuck, you come out to your crush because you want to date them. so fuck off with that “true happiness isn’t about having it’s just about saying it” bullshit

playing: I know I talk a lot abt my ongoing Beam Saber campaign but I’m really excited about it, and I spent a lot of time yesterday doing prep for both the current mission and the next few missions, including some broader faction stuff. I’d never run a campaign before this and it’s really fun actually? and I love the downtime & faction stuff that Beam Saber does that you can’t really get when you’re just doing one shots all the time.

making: didn’t take pictures because I was running late to Beam Saber but I made some pretty tasty garlic bread last night. most of the stuff I’ve been making recently has been food tbh, my big cosplay project goes through phases where I work on it a lot and then realize how much work I still have to do and take a break for a few weeks, and right now I have to alter a bunch of pattern pieces so that’s. gonna be fun

[shoezuki]

So this is the second time im writin this shit out but. I been thinkin a shou n ritsu bein nonbinary A Lot so im gonna write it again but uh

Heres some nonbinary shou n ritsu hcs cuz why not

Shou his Whole Damn Life was Very defiant of any like. Gender based expectations and the 'girls do this guys do that' bullshit

Didnt have any support from his parents. Didnt know the Vocabulary for how he was feelin, his identity

You Know touichirou wouldnt know Any trans terms and identities fuck that cishet

Shou always Knew he wasnt a boy. More in a sense of 'im just shou' and leavin it at that most his childhood. He had other things to worry about

Wasny until after the world domination arc that shou Really had the mental space and time to consider himself more

Hes never been Uncomfortable being seen as a boy, per se. More because He knows who he is, hes sure of himself, thats what matters

He doesnt fuck w labels. Doesnt give a shit what pronouns r used for him. Just refers to himself as Nonbinary cuz he doesnt Feel like hed need to fit himself into a more specific label, that his gender or how he Feels bout it changes

At some point just got used to doing 'boy' things cuz thats what touichirou expected of him and like. Was Very Adamant on shou 'acting like a boy'

One day shou is just hanging out post wd arc, and he is just like 'wait a fucking second'

Queue shou having a pink phase. Hair pink. Nails always painted. All kinds of sparkly hair clips. Makeup and skirts. He starts messin round w what he wants to wear and how he wants to present himself and expression

Doesnt consider himself to be Masculine or Feminine. He doesnt fuck w that. What he wears and does is just Things he Likes. Him wearin skirts isnt Girly. Or him wearin scuffed up sneakers isnt Boyish. Its Him

As i said before. Pronouns are Whatever. But serizawa has had to calm shou doen Many times if someone specifically refers to him as a 'boy' or a 'girl'. He is willing to get into scraps for that without a doubt

Serizawa and later Ritsu are the Only ones to really Know hes nonbinary

Moreso he just doesnt care or ser a point in like. Explicitly Coming Out to ppl. He things its unnecessary. So if its not brought up casually, he says nothing bout it

OH and shou didnt come out to ritsu until like. Two months into them dating

And it was like. A Realization one day. That ritsu Probably thinks he's dating a boy. Esp since ritsu is gay. And that Bothers Him

Ofc hes not gonna like. Let it Show that it bothers him

So the whole Coming Out thing was nasically like. They were having one of their Videogame Nights. Its late as all hell. Ritsu is gettin his ass kicked half asleep beside a rabid shou.

Hou just blurts out like 'oh by the way im not a boy im nonbinary so like. Yeah'

Shou voice: oh cool thats out and done cool

Ritsu voice: wait a second hold on hold on HIM TOO????

And like. Ritsu fuckin Freezes. Absolutely shocked. Pauses the game and looks at shou like "oh my god im not a boy either"

Queue a lot of screaming, loud yellin, things flying round the room, ritsu's parents losin their shit, the works

For ritsu being nb and Realizin hes nb was really different

He knew from the get go he wasnt a girl. As soon as he could he rejected 'girly' things and bein labeled as a girl

His family, as Soon As he said 'im not a girl', they were like 'oh okay son :)' and supported him

But like. Even tho ritsu was definitely more comfortable w masculinity n being seen as and called a Boy it still didnt 100% feel right

But again. Motherfuckers dont talk bout nonbinary genders (assholes....) so he didnt have the Words to say how he was feelin. Plus trying to argue that No he Wasnt a boy completely would get his parents confused

It seemed to him it was Either youre a Boy or a Girl so he chose boy.

Even when he looked into it himself, never really Vocalized his identity. Wouldnt even refer to himself as nonbinary in privacy. Didnt come out to his parents or brother

Ritsu is a demiboy, altho im not 100% sure on what identity and amd considerin maybe he'd be bigender? Hmmmm

He Did put a lot of thought into it. More so like 'im going to do this and wear that and express myself like this when i move out' kind of thinking

Like. He put A Lot of thought into his gender

Doesnt mind being seen as a boy. Its more comfy. He goes by he/him and they/them.

When shou came out to him it was the Wildest thing for them. Ritsu never knew anyone else to be nonbinary. Shou technically knew minegishi but he couldnt hold a convo w them without staring at their lack of eyebrows and gettin weirded out by it

'So if youre gay And nonbinary does that mean you only like other nonbinary people? Or like. Is that how you found me ritsu? You were drawn in by my wicked good looks and nonbinary vibes?' Ritsu, who has spent nights awake wondering just this 'i like boys and nonbinary ppl dipshit'

They really help each other open up about their genders. Like shou becomes more vocal about Not Being A Boy, even if its just w jokes. And ritsu feels so much more at ease. Somethin about havin the fact that Hes Nonbinary exist somewhere else outside of Just his mind is warm feeling

Gender Talks between them contain a lot of 'oh my god ME TOO' and 'oh wow same???'

[incomprehensiblelentils]

Hey, so I’ve seen a little discussion on twitter about this but basically none of it here, so I wanted to mention it because it’s bothering me. Atypical is a Netflix comedy series that will be released on August 11, and this is the IMDB summary.

Sam, an 18-year-old on the autism spectrum, decides it’s time to find a girlfriend, a journey that sets Sam’s mom on her own life-changing path as her son seeks more independence.

So just from that summary there are a few things that make me nervous. First of all, many autistic people and communities (including me) prefer the phrase “autistic person” to “person on the spectrum” or “person with autism,” but a lot of people make this error and some autistics do prefer the latter phrases so it’s not a cardinal sin. Secondly, this show is about a white boy because…of course it is. I can use one hand to count the canon autistic/Asperger’s characters I know of who are not white dudes. Autistic white boys/men are disproportionately the ones who get diagnosis, treatment, and media representation, despite there being growing evidence that a fairly high percentage of girls go undiagnosed as children (hi that’s me) because they do not present the typical “signs” of being autistic that the medical community is used to seeing. Thirdly, both this summary and the trailer specifically single out Sam’s mom as having her own narrative arc. This is a thing that MANY stories about autistic people do - they feel they need to either filter the autistic person through a neurotypical lens, or at least include a secondary story about an NT person that ties into the autistic person’s story. This even happens in movies that I quite like, such as Mary & Max, and it happens with movies that are more problematic, like Adam (2009). I do understand that comedies typically have multiple plotlines, but choosing to highlight the mom’s journey in relation to how she feels about her son’s maturing is, uh, suspicious. It brings to mind the Autism Parent, who makes their child’s autism all about them and what a good/put-upon/selfless parent they are. Maybe it won’t be like that at all, but I see some red flags is all.

There’s a trailer out, which I’ve seen once and spent the whole way cringing through. This article does a pretty good job of breaking down why my shoulders were up around my ears the whole time, but for a quick rundown of the issues I see:

Again, white cishet protagonist, disproportionately represented in stories about autistic people

Many jokes about how ~awkward~ Sam is and how he doesn’t “pick up on signals”

“Sometimes I wish I was normal” which some of us DO feel, but it’s again a narrative disproportionately represented in the media

“Your son has the same desire to be loved that we all do” wow love that acearo erasure that’s cool

He says he really wants to see boobs, that’s uh some great objectifying of women there thanks

Not relevant to the rest of this post but I didn’t laugh at any of the jokes

So, yeah. On top of that, people have pointed out that casting an NT actor for the autistic lead is *quite* iffy. Someone brought it up on twitter and the show’s official account replied with this.

Auditions for Sam included autistic actors, but Keir was cast as best for the role. The cast does include autistic people

I don’t want to erase any autistic actors that worked on the show, but it’s deeply suspicious that the account brushed it aside with no specificity. If there are autistic actors, then that’s awesome. I’m glad they have work. But I question their choice to cast an NT actor as the autistic lead, and I wonder if maybe “best for the role” means, to them, that Keir Gilchrist was able to play to autistic stereotypes better than actual autistic people. Which is definitely a problem.

It’s very hard to find articles about the production of the show, but I did find one from USA Today that says creator Robia Rashid “consulted with a California State University professor who worked at UCLA’s Center for Autism Research and Treatment.” Which…that’s cool, but I wonder if Rashid or any of the producers know that there are actual organizations with autistic adults involved who they could have consulted. The Autistic Self-Advocacy Network is one such organization. This seems to be yet another case of an NT person consulting NT “experts” in order to tell an autistic person’s story. I also once saw a claim that Rashid was inspired by an autistic family member, but I can’t find anything to verify that. If true, I’m sure her intentions are noble, but Atypical is being presented as yet another story about a cishet white autistic boy who wants to “be normal.” Rashid seems to genuinely want to create an accurate and sensitive portrayal, which makes it all the more frustrating that she didn’t think (or bother) to talk to actual autistic adults, WHO EXIST. Hell, at this point I’m so tired of all this bullshit I’ll do consultation for free. (I’m kidding but only sort of)

There are already a handful of reviews out, most of which are fairly positive and all of which use the “boy with autism” language or (even worse) something like “suffering from autism.” One in particular includes this jaw-droppingly offensive line: “There’s some talk that an autistic actor should’ve played this role, but that complaint is shortsighted: An actor of Gilchrist’s caliber can do a tremendous job of humanizing a condition like autism, and he proves that here.” Wow thanks for outright stating that autistic people need “humanizing” because we can’t possibly do it ourselves, reviewer!!!! You were definitely the right person for this assignment! Anyway, nothing about any of these reviews indicates to me that the series is not the inspiration porn for NT people that I thought it might be.

If you’re wondering about media portrayals that I actually like, here are my recommendations. (Disclaimer: these are my opinions alone and some autistic people may find these characters problematic or offensive.)

Temple Grandin is a TV film based on the life of the real woman, and is the best portrayal of an autistic woman I’ve seen to date.

I know some autistics find Abed Nadir on Community problematic, which is valid, but I personally adore him.

Parker on Leverage sadly never had her Asperger’s canonized onscreen, but it was confirmed in blog posts from creator Dean Devlin. She has multiple excellent story arcs and an adorable romance over the show’s five seasons.

The 2017 Power Rangers has Billy Cranston, who is by far the best character in the reboot. I should warn that he is violently killed about ¾ of the way through the film, but is then brought back to life about five minutes later. I’m sure this could be traumatic if someone (especially a child) wasn’t warned.

On the Edge of Gone by Corrine Duyvis is an excellent novel about an autistic girl at the end of the world.

I can’t tell anyone what to do, and I don’t want to speak for any other autistic people. But I, personally, find pretty much everything I’ve seen about Atypical to be hurtful, frustrating, and an erasure of authentic autistic perspectives and experiences. I’d like to ask my NT friends to consider skipping this show, and maybe seek out stories told by or involving actual autistic people. If you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading. You may be familiar with the phrase “death by a thousand cuts,” which some minorities have used as a vivid illustration to explain why microaggressions are so harmful - they happen again and again and they add up and it’s overwhelming. Atypical feels like another tiny cut to me. And it’s exhausting.