#because masculinity kinda doesn't exist. in the same way gender as a whole doesn't

[omgfangirlland]

Surprise, surprise, I have another idea.. 2 idea to be exact but.. Yeah.

My first idea is a female omni-man reader x invincible:

A female reader version of omni-man. She's from another universe where everyone is genderbent.. Like instead of Debbie Grayson, there's a male version (I'm not creative with names). She acts exactly like omni-man since she's technically him from another universe but female. (You can keep the viltrumites gender the same if you want, especially thragg). Imagine that she was just sleeping and then woke up in another universe or something.

Second idea is Nolan wife reader x invincible:

She was the wife of Nolan and Debbie didn't exist or that she died (you can make your own idea). Nolan who truly did love reader. Reader who took care of Nolan and Mark.

One day, she was just going out of her room but she felt something strange.. Why was the family photo they took together had a different woman instead of her? Why are some things gone or placed in a different place? As she went down she saw a her husband and son but with another woman, eating at the table.. What was going on?!? (She looked confused as to why there was a stranger) she was feeling out of place with everything.. Why was Nolan giving her a look like she was a stranger? Why did they look at her like she just broke in their house when she had been living there with them? Why did mark shield that woman like how he would shield her from threats? He was so confused and out of place.. She didn't feel like she belonged.

Then something happened and they found out that she's from another universe or something.. (I don't have the brain capacity to think of how they found out that she's from another universe.)

Btw, credit to the person that inspired the second idea.. I read a batfam x Batman wife reader. The reader gets teleported to another universe.. I'mma @ the writer on my second ask.. I forgot their username so yeah..

-🔱

I read the story too! Such a fun concept, however, I'm itching for the Nolan!Reader, mainly because I think it'll be a very different story if Nolan were a woman and the one to get pregnant.

Like pregnancy changes you- babies will take your calcium if they need it, and you will lose your teeth. And if it's an especially hard one, I'm sure Nolan!Fem!Reader would have a change of mind. (I'm also speaking as someone who read the comics and saw how the two Viltrumite women evolved so- keep that in mind)

Also- the closest we can get for Male!Debbie is Deb from Debron, I think- Deborah doesn't have a male counterpart like Alexandra/Alexander or other names from what I'm reading.

(I do think this should get a part 2- kinda left it where it is because I already spent way too much time on this and if I keep going, morning will come :)) )

CW: pregnancy, one mention of rape but no explicit go into it

I think all pregnancies are hard, even if the person who is pregnant doesn't say so. You're growing a little human- that takes a loooooot.

And for someone raised in a clearly patriarchal/toxic masculinity world where RAPE is an accepted way of reproducing- and mind you, not even reproducing for the love of a child, but breeding just to raise more soldiers- there's no way getting pregnant didn't change Fem!Nolan!Reader.

First of all, she didn't expect Deb to care or be as attentive as he was, I fully think the Female Viltrumites either go through the pregnancy alone, and everyone agrees that's not worthy of fighting due to them being pregnant with a potential warrior, or they go into hiding just to be sure nobody tries anything while in such a vulnerable condition.

So, Deb's presence for the Reader throughout the whole pregnancy adds to the change. Sure, she feels weak for crying over something as insignificant as the nursery paint not being the exact pale green she wanted, but Deb's smile makes her cry for other reasons.

"It's okay, honny. It's important for you, so it's important for me too. We'll get another bucket until we get the exact color you want." She didn't expect understanding, affection, or care, she expected ignorance and annoyance.

She wants to be angry at him, to call him names he won't understand, but she can't. Not when he smiles so sweetly and fusses and whines over her. "If you wanted pickles and ice cream, you could have woken me up! I would've gone to get them." Not when he came home from work and went straight for her, kissing her and then her belly.

At first, she dreaded as she realized she loved Deb. That wasn't supposed to happen, but nonetheless, she fell for him. The baby wasn't supposed to happen either, and she still loved him just as much. That doesn't mean you stopped being a hero while pregnant... without a lot of begging from everyone.

Deb was beyond worried whenever you'd leave to work, but he didn't know how to bring it up without stressing you and the baby out. On the other hand, Cecil and the Guardians were beyond stressed, especially when you started showing. A mix of a talk from War Woman, and the pregnancy finally taking a toll on you, you stopped, taking a holiday.

The pregnancy was more exhausting than anything you've ever done, and the training of a true viltrumite was hell on earth. The constant mess that was her hormones, the pain, the swollen feet, and the constant need to go to the bathroom, followed by hot flashes and sleepless nights due to being unable to find the right way to sleep.

Deb enjoyed taking care of you for once. He enjoyed holding your belly and relieving you for a few seconds. He loves looking at how relaxed you were as he nuzzled where little Markus kicked. Deb, however, was terrified when your little warrior was born.

It was bloody, painful- he's never seen you in so much pain, he's never seen you in pain- and for a moment, he thought he lost you both as the doctors pushed him away. And then Mark cried, and you tried to stand up and reach for him, for your son.

After three days spent in the hospital, three days full of healing and looking at your boy non-stop, barely being able to sleep as you checked on him constantly- he was so small, and you know babies sometimes stop breathing, the worry was constant- the first thing you did when you went home was to come clean to Deb.

You wanted him to be the first to know, he deserved that much. He was hurt, you know, but that night he still slept in your bed, still wrapped his arms around you and held you as close as possible. It could have gone so wrong.

The next day, you went to Cecil and the Guardians. They were angry, understandably, but you weren't sorry. If you didn't take the mission, you would have never met Debron, would have never had Markus, and you told them as much.

The months that followed were hard. At the slightest fuss from Mark, Deb was up and running, and most of the time, it would result in him being the reason Mark woke and started crying. You've started holding the man in a choke hold just to keep him from doing it again after the tenth time. "He's just moving, love." It got easier when he started eating solids and babbling.

You were eager to return to being a hero, but you also didn't want to leave your baby. Sometimes you'd spend hours with the sleeping baby on your chest, just humming songs Deb showed you during your first years of dating.

When you woke up the next morning, in a familiar room, something was wrong. There was no Deb rummaging around the kitchen, no baby Mark babbling his lungs out, and as you walked around the house, no photos of your family, barely any photos of a woman and a teen, so similar to your husband and baby.

You found documents and photo albums, and with your experience with parallel universes, you knew that it was your Mark and Deb, just different versions of them. You just didn't know how you got here.

You don't know what made you turn the TV on, but you did. And seeing Conquest headbutting Mark triggered all sorts of alarms in your head.

One second, Mark was listening to Conquest drag on about how he wasn't going to do such things- how he wasn't loyal to the Viltrumite empire- and then the other, he thought his dad had come back and grabbed the balding Viltrumite by the neck. But you weren't his dad.

"We were- allies in my universe. That won't stand between me and protecting that boy."

Yeah- you weren't his dad. But you fought just like him, you knew his name, yelled at him just like Nolan, instructed him and Oliver just like Nolan would. With the two boys, Eve, and you, Conquest went down faster, with fewer injuries to everyone.

When the kids asked you who you were, you were silent. Just for a few seconds, as you took in this Markus, seeing the possibilities of how your own son may grow up to be. "I'd rather say that only once."

Cecil, the boys, and Debbie could only stare at you after telling them about your universe, slowly coming to terms with the fact that you were a version of Nolan.

Mark was quite jealous of you doing the opposite of what his father did, and Debbie had a hard time believing you. You- you couldn't blame Nolan, not when you know how he was raised. "I wouldn't have changed if it wasn't for my Deb and baby. But a lot happened for me to let go of the Viltrumite way. I almost lost my Mark, my husband almost lost both of us. It would have been the same if I weren't a woman."

And Debbie hates how much she gets it. She understands how a pregnancy changes someone, towards the bad or good, and she understands how almost losing your baby can get you to think of life differently. She had a hard time with the birth with her Mark, too, and it sure made her see life in another way.

She just wished her Nolan had realized what you did much sooner.

---

MEME TIME

OG!Mark, hearing that Conquest or Thragg could have been his dad in your universe:

Fem!Nolan!Reader, hearing that Nolan called Debbie a pet:

Also Fem!Nolan!Reader about her husband after being away from him for 6 hours:

And another Fem!Nolan!Reader just because I always wanted to do this one:

[dykethevvitch]

That post has got me thinking about how the queer community treats butches in general. And studs too, but I ofc have more knowledge, and are more comfortable talking about, the butch experience.

It's either unthinkable to be attracted to a butch, or butches exist only as an object of desire. Neither is accurate, as both ignore the butch's relationship to sexuality and desire. You don't have to like butches or be sexually attracted to us, but you should not treat us as if we are inherently undesirable. And on the flipslide, we are often seen as objects of desire. Not a person who is attractive, but a sexual object who exists for the gratification of a partner.

Gays are soo past upholding gender roles, except for butches. Because don't butches want to be big strong chivalrous men? Don't all butches do physical labor and work on cars and stuff? This ignores that fact that while butches are masculine, and often emulate masculine gender roles, we, the same as cis men, should not be expected to perform these gender roles. And not to mention how this isolates disabled butches who can't uphold these gender roles.

And these are sentiments I have seen expressed by gay people, often gay people who say they don't believe in sexualization and gender roles. Being butch can be so isolating, because as a gender nonconforming person I'm obviously Othered by heterosexual society. But the gay community is not immune to their own anti-butch sentiments. There's a problem with toxic masculinity in butch communities, and while butches are not immune to upholding it, I think it's important to consider how we're pushed in that direction, in the same was cis men are.

In short: butches are people, and while we may choose to uphold certain traditional pillars of masculinity, we are not defined by our masculinity, and our relationship to masculinity is our own to decide.

[eva-does-their-best]

“You don't need to do any comparison for that, you just need to know the issues, the root, and think on how to (kinda) fix it.” okay… and “misandry”/“androphobia” aren’t real forms of oppression, and misogyny is. misogyny affects women more than it affects men. trans women are women and trans men are men; therefore, trans women are hurt more by misogyny than trans men are. knowing the issues and roots of oppression /involves/ understanding how “transandrophobia” can’t exist and that what transmascs face is transphobia. transandrophobia is misogyny the same way transphobia and homophobia and lesbophobia are misogyny, that’s what the “roots” are. there is no man-hating “root” of oppression to intersect with transphobia for trans men. and saying that isn’t saying transmascs aren’t oppressed! we’re oppressed by transphobia!!

Ok you are totally missing the point, so allow me to explain things to you because it seems either no one bothered to or maybe you just never read it.

•You cannot take the trans- prefix away from transandrophobia, because it is the specific intersection of transphobia for trans MEN and transmascs. The prefix trans is 100% a requirement because we are talking first and foremost about transphobia, of the specific kind faced by men and men/masculine adjacent people, alright?

• Transandrophobia is not an intersection of transphobia and androphobia/misandry, it is an intersection of transphobia and misoginy, just like transmisoginy, it simply needs a different name because it is specific for men and men/masculine adjacent trans people, and its manifestations and issues are many times different from transmisoginy. Ok?

(Transphobia + misoginy) Applied to women and fems= transmisoginy

(Transphobia + misoginy) Applied to men and mascs= Transandrophobia

•No, before/in case you say it, we won't use transemasculation, transandrophobia doesn't always manifest in a stripping of masculinity, it also appears as the opressors and discriminators weaponizing trans men amd transmascs' masculinity against them.

•Of course, trans men are men and trans women are women, but you cannot just ignore the whole trans prefix. Like it or not none of us is cis (except maybe cistrans people and multigender people with at least one gender they consider cis), so discrimination, opression, how we are treated, etc will NOT look 1:1 to how cis people are treated. Cis feminism does not work for us because we were not accounted for in the patriarchal system, we are all outcasts.

•You cannot just invent a whole category (transmisoginy) for the issues specific to one kind of trans people and leave everyone else with the default transphobia, I think it's fairly obvious to see how that just doesn't work.

•Again, you're misunderstanding the language as I explained above. You are discriminated as trans but also specifically a trans man, not as a man, as a trans man, and as much as a trans man IS a man, it's not the same as a cis man. Cannot let desires of affirmation blind us to the fact the trans part matters and differenciates.

[transandrobroism]

What are your thoughts on women choosing bears over men

i think that's where you end up when you view men as inherently dangerous just by virtue of being men.

and i do get why people pick the bear and defend picking the bear - it's Schrodinger's rapist and stranger danger PSAs and all the statistics about violence against women etc. i understand where that fear comes from. but a lot of it stems from radfem rhetoric that has wormed its way into mainstream feminist discussions and produced this take that men are The Problem - not because of learned behaviours, not because of the patriarchy, but just because of something inherent to men and masculinity that means men are always a danger.

so whilst i'm sympathetic to the fears that lead to women going "i'll take my chances with the bear!" i do think it's worth reflecting on why exactly so many people would rather meet an apex predator than a fellow human being who happens to be of the Wrong Gender. the scenario doesn't specify that the man in the woods is doing anything threatening: he's not wearing a MAGA hat or blasting Andrew Tate podcasts on his bluetooth speaker or leering at every woman who walks past on the hiking trail. he's just some guy in the woods minding his own business. is it easier to imagine a sympathetic wild animal than a sympathetic man? why?

and the thing is, i'm old enough to remember a time when the feminist actions du jour were things like slut walk and 'take back the night' because the whole point was women shouldn't have to be scared. that women deserve to walk around in public and feel safe. somehow we've gone backwards on that to where women living in abject terror of 50% of their fellow humans is defended as the "feminist position" and going "that seems kinda bonkers actually maybe that should not in fact be how women experience the world" is anti-feminist. how did we get here. what went wrong.

the fear of men and choosing the bear are usually justified by talking about statistics on male violence against women. these statistics point to very real problems, but the talk of stranger danger and choosing the bear elides the fact that. statistically. you are more likely to be harmed by a man you know than by a stranger. over 85% of sexual assault victims knew their attacker beforehand (see this NIJ report and this BBC article). or see the UN Women report on global violence against women: "While 55 per cent of all female homicides are committed by intimate partners or other family members, only 12 per cent of all male homicides are perpetrated in the private sphere." Or this report from the BJS in America: "76% of female murders and 56% of male murders were perpetrated by someone known to the victim". The same report also states that 21% of male homicide victims were murdered by strangers, compared to 12% of female victims.

based on actual statistics on violence rates, men are more justified in fearing strangers than women are. but the "stranger danger" myth persists, and it feeds into the radfem narrative that yes, men are an existential threat and inherently violent just for existing, and yes you should be terrified of every strange man you see on the street. it's worth asking: who benefits from this? who benefits from women being scared of strangers all the time? given the high rates of domestic violence and other violence directed at women by men they know, family members, partners or ex-partners, fathers, brothers... who is benefitting from a population of women terrified to walk into the woods alone?

the most dangerous man in the woods is the one you brought with you.

[our-honeybee-transfem-experience]

hi again, im the person who submitted the ask about having been excited to learn a new term, and then getting upset by the stuff i'd been reading

came back to check for a response, saw you asked for more context, so i've scrolled through the blog as far as i did before (a bit over a week) and im going to try? (note that i can fully believe any individual instance of this being accidental or reading into something, but the overall pattern was what got to me - please don't read this as me singling anyone out, i was asked for examples so im trying to provide examples)

as a warning, this will be long because im trying to be detailed, and i'll be writing this in a messy back-and-forth way, so unless i spend an extra thirty minutes rereading it to clean it up, it'll be a bit of a mess grammatically and structurally (i've been known to start typing something, then quickly look at something else and forget i started, so there's a high risk of remarks that were started and never completed) (also this is largely based on how i felt reading stuff, which is always going to be a hard thing to speak concretely about or add sources to)

i read the ask that said "the ethno-nationalists of trans womanhood" and thought that felt a bit extreme, and later felt it was part of a pattern of seeing trans women as aggressive

i kept seeing the alternative to being a honeybee transfem as being an "amab transfem", and got really put off by that - while i was assigned male at birth, i don't treat it as part of my identity, and i don't really know anyone trans who gives their assigned gender pride of place next to their actual gender? so it just kinda felt like when clueless cis people keep repeating "used to be a man" every time they mention trans women

that feeling was extra-strong with the "I can count on two hands the number of cis men I’ve known who have experimented with identifying as trans women" post, which left an unpleasant undertone that non-honeybee trans women are cis men trying out being women who just haven't given up yet

also i couldn't help but be extremely aware that almost all mentions of non-honeybee trans women were complaining about exclusionists and calling them terrible things - terfs, ethnonationalists, etc - to the point when at least once that detail was just elided, "I’ve seen so much “TERF” rhetoric from amab trans women lately"

i read the ask that said "One of the main things the trans community has been fighting to get recognized is that gender identity exists outside biological sex.", and felt that the underlying statement was that im not a woman, im a trans woman, and that those are distinct things? im not a trans woman out of any connection to masculinity, im a trans woman because im a woman and have had to go against the grain of society to even consider myself as such - being a woman had to be a whole complicated messy thing, with some amount of becoming, and with a huge amount of pushback against being a woman at all (and im lucky enough to've had supportive family and friends when i came out! but turns out, the whole weight of societal transphobia is a lot of pushback even with that luck...)

"if we came to be accepted as transfems, we’d become a better version of themselves, the transfemininity bar would be set way higher" i... well i think this one kinda speaks for itself? and the later clarification clarified it as "I ididn't mean that afab transfems were better than other transfems of course, but that we would be perceived that way by society and by other transfeminine people" which is still the same, saying that non-honeybee trans women are just worse at being women...

and to close out, there were also at least a couple of asks that i saw that really felt like they were implying that they saw themselves as transfem because they had "hunky" masculine traits, which. i really hope they do know that trans woman doesn't mean masculine woman? but even if they do, it's still going into some delicate territory in a world where trans women are often at best seen as masculine women, when seen as women at all, and adding fuel to that fire (i have had to consider whether to voice train for safety or comfort, despite liking my voice already, and someone telling me "i like your voice too, it's so masc!" would. probably make me avoid talking in their vicinity and reconsider voice training)

so. yeah it really really felt like a decent amount of talking about how non-honeybee trans women have masculine traits and are aggressively hogging the term transfem and a lot of emphasis on non-honeybee trans women being amab

cant read all of it cuz im kinda lazy and my eyes hurt but from what i skimmed i think 1. yeah the etho-nationalist take was extreme 2. the reason we mention amab tfems so much is bc its just a distinguisher, not saying it affects ur gender at all 3. that thing abt bio sex vs gender isnt supposed to mean anything bad, it means that bio sex and gender dont always align

and also a lot of the reasons amab tfems are only mentioned when theyre being mean to us is because thats the only time the distinction matters, not anything to do with agab but just for lack of a better thing to say

[embeddedsystems-shius]

Its 5 am, almost 6. I got woken up by my dog existing (my sleep is so easily disrupted by the lightest of literally any fuckin sound ever), so now I just exist I guess.

Last night's log got me thinking about gender and masculinity and shit, so imma write about that.

Also imma be talking about sex. Cause it's important context.

And look, I don't give a shit if you're a fuckin minor reading this shit on tumblr dot com - you probably already look at porn and have also never had proper sex ed in your entire life. I legitimately don't care if the "innocent children" see this shit.

Things like these need to be spoken about, on a man-to-man basis. There shouldn't be any secrets about this kinda shit - cause literally EVERYONE experiences this. It comes with the whole experience set of being a living fucking animal.

You WILL get fuckin horny, and you WILL want to do the do, at one point. Whether that be with someone else, or something else.

More than anything, the issue's gonna be how you go about satisfying those urges.

Cause that's the shit that can EASILY make or break who you are.

Regardless, just click off if this kinda stuff makes you uncomfortable.

So first of all - what the fuck is my gender?

I'll be honest, even I don't fucking know. Lmao.

Im probably more masculine than I am feminine, but I don't honestly know what to make of myself.

And if you think that I perceive myself as even remotely fitting into any one box - I'll let you know that I don't. I barely perceive myself at all, and I'd like to keep it that way, thanks. (Im joking)

...But seriously, I don't actually know what the fuck I am. I don't even follow standard gender-specific growth markers.

My parents only knew that I was a girl, really close to the day of my delivery. They had to prepare a guy name and a girl name for me - because the docs couldn't really tell from the imaging, until I was basically a few weeks away from popping out the womb. I was supposed to be named like, Tomoya, or Yuuki? Or something? I think. Who knows.

Anyways, my gender-fuckening doesn't exactly end there - cause when I hit puberty, my voice actually started getting lower.

(edit 4 hours later: it's Yuujin. I was supposed to be named Yuujin - pronounced like Eugene, in English. My dad wanted to name his kids something that passed in both English and Japanse. My current name's created under that same concept)

I was living in Japan at the time, and in my school at least, teachers were required to track these puberty markers, right. One of them was tracking the change in voice ranges of children throughout the year of 5-6 grades primary/elementary.

From start to end, my voice range got lower by almost an entire octave. I only remember this cause my teachers had to test me multiple times to confirm that this was the case.

It's not like my voice broke or anything - I ain't built like that. It was a gradual, but consistent change that happened over 2 years. I don't think my teachers had ever seen anything like it before - but it was a fact that they couldn't really deny as a fluke, either.

As I grew older, I struggled with shit like self perception because of these 'abnormal' gender markers.

I struggle with PCOS, which is like, an imbalance with female hormones apparently. My period doesn't even come on most months if I'm off the pill. It usually just appears every once in 2-3 months, and then fucks off.

But yeah, something the docs always tell me is that my body creates an abnormally high level of testosterone - for being born a woman. And trust, this shit has plagued me basically my entire life. Especially as an insecure teenager.

Imagine being a teenage girl that needs to fucking shave every so often, or she grows a moustache. In a fucking country where even men can't really grow facial hair, even if they wanted to.

And you know how acne hits some adolescent boys like a fuckin truck?? I struggled with that too.

I had greasy as shit skin, and it was evident in my hair, too. Which didn't help me in the slightest, cause my hair was long, straight, and black. That shit shows, even if I wanted that to be the case or not.

I couldn't even relate to girls, until I became a literal, full-ass legal adult. Talking to them made me kinda uncomfortable - unless I knew them beforehand.

Like I'd clam up and start stuttering even worse than I already did, if I was talking to a girl. It was to the point that if I was a guy I would probably, definitely, be a teenage incel. I couldn't talk to women for shit. It's why all my friends just naturally became guys. The violent ones, too.

When I came to, I guess - the only kids I could call my friends were the fuckin delinquents. They were the only fucks who accepted me for who I was. Even if they were the wrong sorta crowd. The kind that would eventually end up in juvi, or worse.

People probably wouldn't believe me if I said this - but when I was a teenager, the only hangouts I ever really did with my friends were in shady nightclubs, cheap and overcrowded bars, or online on steam, playing shit like tf2 or l4d with them online.

And yeah, we were all autistic fucks. Our groupchats were always named something on the lines of "Cancer", "Mongoloid the Gathering", "Ass Hemorrhoid Group", or someshit like that. It was funny as fuck.

Also stupid, and objectively disgusting, probably, but still.

...These were the only people thay accepted me for who I was. Regardless if I was a girl or not.

They were the only ones who didn't really give a shit if I was greasy, depressed, or gave off "school shooter vibes". We were all on the same boat anyways.

Those fucks were drug addicts, porn addicts - troubled bitchass teenagers with too much parent money, time, and problems on their hands. Entirely irredeemable degenerates, the entire lot of them.

But still.

They were the only friends I ever really had.

So ending up like them was something that just naturally happened, I think.

The issue is that I wasn't actually like them. Not in the way that mattered to me, at least.

There was some shit they'd go through that I'd never truly understand - because I'm not a guy. I don't exactly have a penis. Also I have visible tits. Massive fuckin honkadonks. HAHA

...the point is that I wasn't actually one of them. And I couldn't be, no matter how much I wanted to.

I'm still bitter about it, sometimes. But in a way I'm also kinda glad that I couldn't be one of them.

...I had to witness my friends struggle through addiction, right. There was a lotta different types of addiction that these fuckers went through, but the most common one was porn addiction. Or another type of sex addiction of some sort.

And when you have enough money to play around the rules as a fucking teenager in a third world country - sometimes you can realize some horrible, horrible shit.

Cause there's only so many times you can hire a prostitute before you realize that even she ain't gonna fill that void where your heart's supposed to be. It's not gonna make you feel anymore understood. Any less lonely.

No fuckin woman is gonna fuckin help you. Because nobody fucking can.

Once you fall into that trap, it gets harder and harder to control yourself after. Talking about shit like this with any fucking sane adult usually just makes it worse. So you resort to more drugs. More alcohol. More sex.

The loneliness just gets worse after that.

Everything just gets worse after that.

...I've watched this happen, too many times.

It's the main reason why I'm glad I'm NOT a guy. It's why I'm glad I don't have a fuckin dick built into me. It would've made shit too easy.

Cause if I were put into the same place as my friends, I wouldn't be here. I woulda gone down the same damn path as them. I woulda ended up the same way as the ones who are now dead.

I'm not fuckin special. I ain't gonna be above the influences that made me who I am.

Shit like this made one thing clear to me, at the very least.

It's that I'm not a man.

There are some struggles I'll never be able to fully understand. Some things I don't think I want to. Those same issues with sex and relationships are one of them.

These issues that I have with aggression and violence are excusable to most - only in part because I am biologically female. And I don't even really know if I really fit into that box, either.

As usual, I don't know what the fuck I even am. But at least, I guess - I got some more time to think about it.

As long as I'm alive, I got time.

And time is all I got, really.

[dannyphantom-rewrite]

Character ref for; Jack, Maddie and Jazz,

Art by @gally-hin / @gally-hin-phantom

Okay so first off; in terms of Actual redesign, I didn't change a whole lot. I'm actually very fond of Jack and Maddie's design's, my only real issue was with their proportions. Like...look as a lady person who is also thiCC I do not have a fucking wasp thin waist and I'm sure I'm not the only one, lmao. As for Jack? Godamnit he looked like a brick on toothpicks. Just Let him be a fucking Bara man! Anyway of course I asked Gally to do this one bc they're fucking great at drawing different body types

I also cannot and will not take credit for Jazz's outfit. I didn't have any issue with her canon clothes aside from them being a bit plain, so what she's wearing here was literally pulled straight off of her original concept art, which I will link here.

Anyway, getting to the Actual character lore now, let's start with

Maddie Fenton

-Full name is Madeline (I haven't decided on a maiden name yet)

-Born and raised on a farm in Arkansas, had a southern accent that she trained herself out of in college bc it was just one more reason for people not to take her seriously. Still sometimes uses "y'all" completely unironically bc old habits die hard.

-She has a really big family, and they're proud of her accomplishments but feel like she's wasting her talent studying ghosts, because really, up until the Fenton portal was up and running there wasn't even any solid proof they existed. Her sister Alicia is the one outlier there, and even if she doesn't understand, it she completely supports her.

-She majored in engineering and minored in psychology at Wisconsin EDU. Her, Jack and Vlad were all in the same engineering class, and that's where they met.

-Maddie is particularly interested in how ghosts think, analysing their behavior, their motives. Not only that, but they aren't just dead people with unfinished business, they've built an entire culture in the Ghost Zone that is completely seperate from humanity, and she wants to understand all of it.

-skilled marksman and 9th degree black belt, (which is. The highest fucking level there is holy shit? I looked it up after I saw it on her wiki page.)

Jack Fenton

-He's from Minnesota (Amity park is in Illinois and him and Maddie didn't move there until after they got married) 

-okay, "but why minnesota specifically" you ask? Because. I crave. Foot ball discourse. 

-minnesota vikings vs green bay packers guys do you UNDERSTAND WHERE IM GOING WITH THIS 

-The funny thing is that Jack only watches football casually while Vlad is a fucking die hard so when these two got together to see a game it was like....

-Jack: Here to chill and have a good time.

-Vlad: Primed and ready to start a fist fight at any given moment.

-I am never not going to be salty about how Canon Jack was portrayed like a complete moron 99% percent of the time. Like no...theres a difference between Actual Stupid and ADHD induced dumbass-ery.

-Am I saying Jack Fenton has ADHD? Yes. why? Because I also have ADHD and I have always vibed So Hard with his Character.

-Jack is loud and easily excited about things that interest him. He's impulsive and fidgety and yeah, a bit absent minded. He has a mouth that clearly runs so much faster than his head. His train of thought doesn't get derailed so much as it stops and takes several different detours on the way to it's final destination.

-and that's only the tip of the iceberg, really, I'd need an entire essay to get into this completely, but I just really relate.

-Jacks skill-set / interests regarding ghosts vary a bit from Maddie's, most notably in the sense that he doesn't believe that they're static entities already set in their ways, completely incapable of change.

-Jack majored in engineering and minored in Biology at Wisconsin EDU.

-Jack's work with tech is a bit hit or miss. He definitely HAS the engineering skills, but the intrest isn't always there and he's constantly jumping back and forth between different projects. He tends to focus on the concept work and schematics and leave most of the assembly to Maddie as a result. It's an arrangement that works well for them, and has drastically decreased the number of unintentional explosions in the lab.

-A lot of Jack's work tends to revolve around ghostly biology and Ectoplasm, figuring out how ghosts are made, what makes them tick, what the hell Ectoplasm Actually Is, how it's used as an energy source, ect.

-and yes, that does also mean he handles the dissections.

-See that facial scar? Yeah, that's not actually there at the start of the series rewrite but it's very important for plot reasons so I had to include it. Can't say much more on the subject because SPOILERs owo.

Jasmine Fenton

-Jazz is a 18 years old, and a senior at Casper high.

-Which means she prepping to go away to college and won't be around to keep an eye on Danny.

-Obviously that doesn't mean I'm just writing her out of the story, oh no. Know why? Because she's also gonna go to Wisconsin EDU. ya know who else is in Wisconsin? Fuckin' Vlad.

-Jazz is autistic, Although she passes for neurotypical in part due to symptoms being completely over looked in girls due to gender stereotyping and also the fact that she doesn't have any special interests that are considered " "too weird.""

- Her hyperfixation with psychology started at a young age in an effort to better understand people, and social/emotional cues and all that.

-Jazz is well liked at school but she's not popular or apart of any specific group or clique. She's very kind and compassionate to people, and just about everyone knows her, but you'd be hard pressed to find someone who actually Considered her a friend. Except maybe Spike.

-I'm gonna have to give spike his own Character ref at some point, but he's this scary looking goth kid that's been held back twice. He's actually super sweet, just really fuckin' quiet and anxious. Him and jazz kinda ended up gravitating towards each other. She might do most of the talking, but they look out for each other.

-its not like jazz doesn't try to socialize, but it's difficult and she's found it much easier and less stressful to just. Keep to herself and let her interactions with her peers stay shallow and superficial. Sure, it's lonely sometimes but it's better than constantly worrying about saying the wrong thing or making some other misstep.

-One of Jazz's other special interests is football, and it's not so much the players or the game as it is the strategy of it? Started out as one of those things you do to bond with your dad, and she ended up getting really into it.

-She absolutley winds up getting into stupidly intense discussions with Vlad about it, too, lmao.

-Her and Danny probably bonded over SBNation bc that shit has both sentient satellites and ridiculously complex football mechanics.

-She's completely oblivious to the fact, but Dash has a massive crush on her bc holy shit this girl understands football (hey bud your toxic masculinity is showing put that shit away)

-I mentioned that Danny was in Cheer for a bit in middle school so it makes sense that she'd also be pushed into doing some kind of extracurricular activity.....so.....she was in a martial arts class for a bit thanks to Maddie and has a good grasp on self defense.

I think that's everything? I feel like I'm leaving things out tho? Idk if I did I'll come back and add on to this later and also pls don't hesitate to ask questions bc it really helps me flesh things out better.

[arreisstorm]

BTS' Map Of The Soul: Persona

I am always in a continuous state of shock and awe whenever I even begin to contemplate the in-depth philosophical, psychological, and just overall intellect these boys possess.

Not only have they used various works of literature:

Demian- Wings

The Ones Who Walk from Omelas- Spring Day

but they have also been incorporating theoretical science:

Carl Jung's 4 major archetypes

since the very beginning!

And then to use a music industry as big as K-Pop to highlight the importance of knowledge and connect everything together...

That's beautiful.

It's genius!

So let me try and break some of it down now:

Carl Gustav Jung was a famous psychiatrist and psychotherapist who once proposed the theory that everyone's personality consisted of 4 separate entities:

The Shadow

The Anima/Animus

The Persona

The Self

and it was these 4 traits, or archetypes, that were believed to be the reasoning for why we as individuals developed personalities and certain behaviors. He also theorized that when an individual recognized and experienced all 4 archetypes that it would lead to self-fulfilment. So now let's break this down even further but from BTS' viewpoint.

The Shadow

From their debut through Dark & Wild, you can see that these were more chaotic times for BTS as they were trying to let the world know who they were, yet also trying to remain genuine at the same time. It's hard thing to do because, especially when referring to K-Pop, you are told you have to look, act, and exist in a certain way. You are to be idols and to model what's most popular when it comes to societal influence. This is exactly what Carl meant when he introduced the Shadow archetype. It's known to be the darker side of ourselves; the wildness and chaotic version that we use to try to repress some of our more negative thoughts.

BTS experienced the Shadow because they debuted with this "bad-boy" imagine and basically said F the system! Although they still had their personal beliefs and stances on life, they did kind of let themselves become manipulated by others wishes. Even some of the boys have had regrets towards the way they first acted. I mean RM, then Rap Monster, openly expressed how he wanted to change his name because he felt that title no longer applied to who he was. Same for the rest of the boys. They had just started out and were naive and some easily impressionable, no one should blame them for their early days, I mean I'm sure we all have times we look back on not too fondly as well.

The Anima/Animus

Jung believed the next step after the Shadow was the Anima/Animus, which represents the feminine (Anima) side of male's unconsciousness, while the (Animus) is the masculine side for the female's. This aspect was said to bring order or balance to an individual's life. Because we live in a society that is so concerned with separating one's gender as a way to normalize behavior as a whole, it has become almost impossible for us to have said balance because it is "not acceptable"; however, it's important to have those two separations to a person's behavior because it allows us to have positive and negative aspects for each.

Imagine if you had a man who was nothing but competitive and dominating all the time, yet lacked the nurturing skills of a women when it came to showing compassion towards a child or loved ones. Then imagine on the other hand, there's a women who has all the emotional capacity yet let's herself be pushed around and stepped on because she lacks an assertive nature due to said generosity and compassion. Neither one would be able to make it long in this world because they do not possess the balance from both sides to do so.

Relating this back to BTS, you can see the Anima appearing during the Love Yourself highlight reel, although it wasn't so clear to some until now. Most ARMY or casual supporters of BTS simply thought that these girls that appeared in the video were simply some type of love interest or previous relationship they had because including girls in idol groups' videos is nothing out of the ordinary; however, knowing about the archetype Anima/Animus, I have pieced together that these girls were actually not love interests at all, but they represented the boys' feminine part of their unconsciousness.

The reason I say this is because during the HYYH era MVs, you can see the destructive nature BTS are going through. Whether it be destruction of self or of personal relationships, it's obvious that they are still experiencing the first stage, the Shadow, and in order to move past it they must recognize the next one. The girls in the video are seen when the boys are at their happiest, AKA when they are experiencing balance from the uncertainty surrounding their lives. It is here we can see the growth of each member taking place.

(Photo credit: stussyjimin on Twitter)

The Persona

After we have the Shadow and Anima/Animus we move onto the 3rd stage: the Persona. This archetype is one of the most common ones that people find themselves unable to move past.

Societal constructs yet again have a huge part to play in this because we are constantly seeking validation from others in order to appease our own self-conscious tendencies. You see, the word 'persona' in Latin literary means 'mask', which is appropriate because when we reach this archetype we often force ourselves to wear a mask so that others might accept our perceived truths over the actual ones. Whether it be at work, home, in other public situations, or even online we all make the decisions to put on that mask, contradicting our own beliefs in order to seem likeable. These decisions don't even necessarily have to be life-changing, but any minor ones also alter an individual as a whole.

You see, where the Shadow's job is to let us repress our unacceptable behaviors to appear more relatable, the Persona highlights those new changes to keep up the charade of being accepted from what others expect from us. This could more easily be known as "people-pleasing". In order to reach our next stage the most important thing to keep in mind is that we as humans are not simply a sum of our Personas and we must find our true identity within ourselves.

Again, relating this back to BTS, it reminds me of 2 different concepts: Wings and Love Yourself: Tear.

With Wings, I mostly see it in the solos because each one specifically deals with some kind of pain or sadness due to outside influences. For example, in Jungkook's BEGIN, he mentions how helpless he felt during their debut and then how much it hurt him to see his hyungs going through dark times. In Jimin's LIE, he talks about his struggles with starvation and body imagery and how listening to negativity made him spiral out of control. V's STIGMA explains how he often feels like this absent family member to his brothers because of BTS' busy schedule and his inability to be there for them. Suga's FIRST LOVE expands on his depression and how he almost gave up his dream at one point, also turning his back on his first love which is music. RM's Reflection is almost like a conversation with himself conveying his insecurities and how hard he finds it to love himself because of how he's been perceived in the past. Hobi's MAMA, although the more happier track of them all, serves as a love letter to his mom confessing his hardships as well as how much he appreciates his mom for always having his back. Then finally we have Jin's AWAKE, where he pours his heart out about feeling inadequate compared to everyone else, yet he still is going to try his hardest. The boys showed us their personal struggles and how keeping up these charades for so long would end up tearing them apart. They knew they were missing the final link.

Love Yourself: Tear can also be seen in this way. In fact, RM explained that when writing and designing the concept for one of their most popular tracks from the album, Fake Love, he was trying to communicate the fact that, in life, we constantly find ourselves trying to fill a void in order to deem ourselves as whole, and often times this can be filled with love, but that doesn't specifically have to be about relationships. "We're saying that if you're not true to yourself, your love won't last forever. The love could be person to person, it could be between me and myself,".... "It's kinda deep."

See here he means that love doesn't necessarily have to be about a physical relationship, just like the Persona doesn't just have to be about the relationship you have with others. Even if the simplified version is often seen as "people-pleasing", it can also mean, in an inadvertent way, changing yourself or donning a mask in order to fool your own mind into loving those alterations you've made personally. Learning to love yourself and acknowledging your flaws is the only way to reach the final stage.

(Photo credit: dailyhoping on Twitter)

(YAJR#jkc at aminoapps.com)

The Self

The 4th and final stage to achieving personal fulfillment is known as the Self. This means that after having gone through all other areas of self discovery when reaching this stage there should no longer be any traces of doubts or identity loss left.

According to Jung, the Self is most often represented by the wise man/wise woman, especially when it comes to dreams. He once said that if there was a ever a time when a person dreamed of a wise figure, then it was an indication that self fulfillment is right around the corner. This is a lose interpretation though, it doesn't necessarily have to be an old man or old woman, some even think that people who serve as mentors to an individual, regardless of age, can also fit the profile. In the case of BTS however, I do believe that Jung's original idea was more of the inspiration.

If you recall during one of the trailers for Fake Love, there was the Magic Shop where the boys went to trade in objects for others. The vendor in charge of the shop could be considered as a sort of magician, which just so happens to be another character that is said to represent the Self. So knowing that and then if you see in the video that the objects traded by each boy connects them back to previous storylines, or sticking with Jung's theory, previous archetypes that can be used to remind them of hurt, pain, and darker times. The symbolism of this exchange can be interpreted as the boys relinquishing their previous lost identities to finally take that metaphorical step and receive the solution that will finally lead them to the Self.

Actually, if you look at the next MV that follows Fake Love extended version, you will see that it is the last song from BTS' latest album Love Yourself: Answer, Epiphany. The literal definition of the word 'epiphany' means a sudden realization, revelation, or insight, which in terms of the archetype, the Self, this could be a representation of the defining moment that shows BTS finding the final path to self fulfillment and true happiness. I'm not saying they've 100% reached the very top of the pyramid, but I do think that in deciding to make this the last track on the album, they are also treating the words as a personal message to all of ARMY.

This is their genius way of letting everyone know that the only true solution to achieving that final level of a well-developed Self, you must first experience a culmination of all previous archetypes and then integrate them all alongside the last:

One must learn to express hurt and emotions (the Shadow) before they can find a balance within (the Anima/Animus) to help counteract the mask and preconceptions (the Persona) others make us develop throughout life. It is only then will we be wise (the Self) enough to find the hidden truth.

Final Thoughts:

First of all, I want to say thank you if you made it through this whole post, I know its a little long and I truly appreciate it. 💜

Secondly, I want to reiterate that none of this is to be seen as a concrete answer to BTS concepts, song meanings, or their entire creative process as a whole, this is simply my thoughts and opinions and nothing more. That being said though, I am more than open and willing to hear both your theories on the symbolism BTS uses, as well as any constructive criticism you might have concerning this post. So please feel free to leave a comment ✌

Lastly, I have one more thing to touch base on and that is the recent announcement that was the inspiration behind this post being created in the first place. It's been blowing up the internet since it was first released, but in case you might have missed it, BTS has just dropped their comeback date (April 12th!) and the title is Map of the Soul: Persona.

See because I have such an interest in psychology/philosophy and especially loved studying Jung's work, when I first saw the title, and knowing how intellectual these boys are, I couldn't help myself from thinking that this new era could possibly have ties into Jung's 4 Archetypes. This then brought me to revist everything BTS has done up until now to see if I could be right, and that's when I realized they had already tackled the theory on the down low, or at least for most people; hence why I made this post, I wanted to create this in-depth analysis to help others understand the pure genius aspects that goes into BTS' concepts.

Now with that being said, if this new era and concept truly is going to draw inspiration from Carl Jung and his theories, then the above post is nothing more than a simple a taste of what's to come. Trust me, if it's BTS we are talking about, then everything I've said pales in comparison to what their truly brilliant minds can come up with. Either way I can't wait to see what's in store!!!

Thank you again if you read this and please feel free to share or leave your own comments. I would love to hear what you guys have to say! 💜💜💜

[transrowanstar]

as a lesbian, i've always felt a bit uneasy about the whole he/him lesbian thing. I wouldn't ever police somebody's identity, I don't know their story and it's not my place either way. But aside from the historical examples mentioned (with most of those circumstances not being the same today), wouldn't someone who uses he/him pronouns generally be not be female-aligned? Non-binary people exist of course (i'm one), but doesn't the term lesbian mean "female or female-aligned?"

(cont.) until I saw your posts, I hadn’t actually seen any examples of he/him lesbians for me to really understand it, but even now I haven’t seen any modern examples. idk, it always felt weird and inappropriate to imply that lesbians don’t have to be female-aligned, since imo that’s kinda the whole point (outside of historical examples, where it’s completely understandable). I probably just don’t understand it well enough, but I thought i’d throw my 2 cents out there

Well… personally my biggest issue so far is that every argument against he/him lesbians i’ve seen so far keeps boiling down to the implication that your pronouns must match your gender, which i just don’t agree with

just because someone uses he/him doesn’t mean he’s masculine or a man. just because someone uses she/her doesn’t mean she’s feminine or a woman. just because someone uses they/them doesn’t mean they’re nonbinary. 

just like how if someone presents a certain way, say feminine, it doesn’t mean they use she/her pronouns or are feminine, female-aligned, or a woman. same with presenting masculine or presenting androgynously. 

idk this just seems to be some sort of… lingering but strict adherence to a male/female gender binary people can’t seem to let go of and i dont like it