#but being a straight rapist isn't any worse than being a gay rapist

[limetameta]

Not a day goes by that I don’t think about the difference in Tom Riddle aka Lord Voldemort's characterization depending on a) pairing b) his sexuality in said story and c) the form he takes (snake or basic)

I spoke in length about the way authors who write Tom Riddle or Voldemort in Older Tom or Voldemort /Hermione stories absolutely write this power fantasy masculine fellow who's like the ideal dark mysterious and incredibly absurdly straight bordering on never had a gay thought in his life romantic partner who quite naturally isn't really allowed any hobbies outside of being a manipulative sex god who is going to plunder through dark tomes and a taming of the shrew and or submissive hermione granger (but she doesnt wanna admit it ofc so they have to have this long and exhausting song and dance until ultimately she is changed for the worse by the power of dark lord cock) (Ron Weasley bashing mandatory)

Though typically these stories never depict a snake voldemort. Could be in fact because this category of volmione shipper is deeply invested in writing some sort of dark lord bridgerton fantasy. Plus it doesnt quite manage to overlap with monsterfuckers who a) delight in the macabre b) know what a hemipenis is and c) forked tongue rights

The snake voldemort dark lord who is typically either unhinged in the same way a person with a gun who happens to also deal with dementia is tends to generally not fancy Hermione. In part because Hermione is never Hermione in Volmione stories - she is always in actuality meant to be the Reader or the Author living out her sexy boudoir fantasies. And these authors don't like snake voldemort.

Now who likes snake voldemort? Based off of my reading experience hot damn the harrymort portion of the fandom goes crazy for this man. In part because this is a gay pairing and we all know how much gay queer etc folks go crazy for monsterfucking and loving because if someone can love this monstrocity then theres love for me out there too. More eloquent people have written on the phenomenon on monsterfucking and the correlation between queer people and it. I am here to talk about the fact that Snake Voldemort characterization compared to Basic Tom Riddle characterization even in Harrymort is vastly different (depending on author, position, au, etc etc) BUT. These are the main things I have noticed from my unfortunately extensive reading and interaction:

Snake Voldemort is typically a) asexual b) harrysexual because thats his horcrux c) rapist (suppose this is yet another way to generally show what a monster voldemort is. if there isnt a muggle raping orgy among the death eaters, are you really writing the death eaters?/ sarcasm )

This man does not have any thoughts of his own other than harry mine mine, global domination, murder, death, nagini, hiss hiss, hemipenis

There are, of course, outliers where they write Voldemort as a 3 dimensional being and I love them to bits, though they are outliers, perhaps even exceptions that prove the rule of preferred fandom characterization.

Older Tom Riddle in harry pairings kind of dips his foot in the older tom riddle volmione characterization but dips right back out before submerging in a dark bodice ripping fantasy characterization. They keep the manipulation and this continues to be a fantasy where there is a naive younger partner who needs to be shepherded by a stronger hand. Harry and Hermione both are meant to just give in and be shown the wondrous world of a) orgasams and b) a slight type of bimbofication where oh voldemort knows better so you should just do as he says and not think . Depends on the story! Not a rule, but a majority.

Seme and uke dynamics were popular and or mandatory in harrymort or tomarry pairings and we all know what a limiting and rigid dynamic those were.

These days more and more people are writing a multidimensional lord voldemort for all pairings and I gotta say its very nice. Good to sometimes open up a story and see the man have a hobby or not be too homophobic to take a cock up the arse.

As for Bellamort - kind of the same as Volmione but the sex is much more graphic. Haven't read enough to actually talk about.

[kierancampire]

Apparently having a genital preference makes you a terf now?

I saw someone say that, how it is transphobic to have a genital preference, and this person also said what it means to be gay, how others should experience being gay, that being gay isn't attraction to penises but to men, and as they are a ftm person, if you don't sleep with them it's because you're a terf.

So i said how much i have always supported the trans community, that a man doesn't need a penis to be a man, but I'm as bad as JK Rowling for having a genital preference? I also said the reason a lot of people are gay is because they aren't attracted to boobs and vaginas. So i asked them, if we're terfs for having a genital preference, regardless of our support for the trans community. Are they not problematic and toxic for telling others how they should be gay? Are they not wrong for saying how others should enjoy sex? Are they not wrong for saying you must have sex with them, whether you want it or not, or you're a terf? Are they homophobic for not respecting other gay peoples preferences? Are straight dudes homophobic for not wanting to sleep with cis men? Are straight women sexist for not wanting to sleep with cis women? But also, does it end there? Am i bigoted to people with foot fetishes for not liking feet or for not posting photos of my feet? Is someone bigoted for preferring short hair to long hair? Is someone fat phobic for making friends with larger people but just not being sexually attracted to them? Are you a racist, and as bad as people who harm/kill black people all because you don't want to sleep with every black person, even if it is due to something else about their appearance or lifestyle? I finished my comment by again stating my sympathies for them and how dysphoric it must feel, but if their views are you must sleep with them or you're a terf, that isn't okay, and how is it worse for me to respectfully tell a pre-op trans man that i am not compatible with them, than it is saying you must sleep with them or you're a terf. So I'd say 50% of my comment was support for them and trans people, i tried to make that clear.

Someone else responded saying they love how a trans person is airing their grievances, but I'm essentially calling them a rapist. So i asked them, you're going to ignore every bit of praise and support i gave not only to the trans community as a whole, but also this person, and you're also going to ignore every argument i made and every question i had, and instead say i am calling them a rapist and be upset with me for that? Even though i am just repeating what they said, that either you have to sleep with them or you're a terf. So i asked them, why are they upset with me for pointing out what they said, but not what the person themselves said? Why are they not upset that they've said you must sleep with them or you're a terf? Also, they see nothing wrong with this person telling people how you should be gay? What it means to be gay? How you should experience sexuality? What you should enjoy sexually? For not respecting other gay people? For being the closed minded on this? Why they ignored all my comment to focus on one thing? They said to someone else that they didn't make any arguments on why it is not transphobic to have genital preferences, i did and they're ignoring all of that, so does that mean i made arguments and points they can't argue against without admitting the views they and this other person hold are toxic and shitty?

Thing is, my comments are getting tons of downvotes, but theirs are getting upvotes, so i know it isn't only them who hold these views. But i don't see anything wrong in my views, i however see so many things wrong in their views. Also, this is where i want to give up. Because I'm a gay man who isn't attracted to boobs and vaginas in the slightest, and because i am only attracted to penises, note i didn't say i am not attracted to trans men on a whole, i just am physically not attracted to vaginas and boobs, and that is something i imagine many gay men feel the same way on, that's why many people are gay. I'm/we're terfs? So there is no point supporting trans people, the trans community, trans businesses, fighting for trans rights. I should just start dead naming, misgendering, and being violent towards trans people, because i have a genital preference i have no control over and was born like? And because i don't want to force myself into sexual situations i do not want to not be a terf? Apparently being gay and only liking penises in invalid now and is a harmful and bigoted thing in today's society? Again, the way i was born and have no control over, notice the hypocrisy, makes me a bad person?

[jeremy-ken-anderson]

Checkbox Writing

In the final act Fruit of Evolution gets really trashy, which isn't a surprise but is still disappointing.

Probably the best running joke in the series - though individual jokes vastly outshine it - is the idea that the protagonist has gone past usable force and is telling his status window, "No! Stop! Quit it!" as it gives him new skills and power-ups. There's a scene where he reads a book about spells (Not "a spellbook," just a book about the kinds of magic in general") and gets visually buried in skill icons.

Possibly as a direct result of this, the worst of the story is where the plot has contrived a situation where his vast OP nature is useful. This jumps ship from what the series is good at - a goofy rules-lite self-aware comedy - to a bog-standard trash isekai playing it straight. The hero solves the problem nobody else can, in a non-amusing way, and everyone praises him for how wonderful and kind and talented and special a boy he is. Credit where it's due, there is a joke I appreciate in the midst of his casting his big super-spell to save the day. It's not like it drops from goofy to serious 100%, just...more than 60%, which is too much for my tastes. YMMV.

But the other part that really fails is the same thing that made the OP such a failure: They get to this point in the writing and they feel like they have to include everything on a checklist. And then they just...start going down the list, checking boxes, with no sense of pacing or of whether scenes have been earned. Oh yeah, we needed a chance for each of the perverts from the adventurer's guild to defeat monsters with their individual perversions. Here's a clip of the guy with a milking fetish throwing baby bottles at an ogre and then they're apparently just grenades. We literally haven't seen this guy since protag-kun was introduced to the list of perverts when he first arrived at the guild. I liked the idea of the adventurer's guild being full of people who were actually good at their jobs, either in spite of or because of their perversions. But some of these ideas needed more time baking in the oven, and all of them collectively should have been a series of jokes that took a total of one minute. I'm pretty sure they got a minute each.

Also one of the pervert teams is a trio of - and I really don't think there's a nicer way to say this - rapist gays. I feel like this could in theory have been a viable joke, if the series had included any non-rapist gay representation. But it doesn't. This puts the series in company with heavily sexualizing child-coded characters, or treating an instance of incest as "pure love." I got through the scene with them when they first showed up, prayed they'd never show up again, and then they were back for the finale and it was so fucking needless.

Completely opposite this, the other deeply disappointing thing in the story is the "other students" subplot, which kept cutting to a nothing plotline about what happened with all the other characters who got isekai'd. And like, trying to write Arifureta as spare scenes in the middle of their comedy. But it's a bunch of scenes about characters we don't know or care about and - most damning - it's never funny. In our self-aware goofball comedy series. Imagine how much worse KonoSuba would be if it included 5-minute clips of an unrelated high school drama with no jokes in them in every episode. Fruit of Evolution does this.

[fangirlandfanboy69]

I don't know how else to say this but...

BEING STRAIGHT DOES NOT MAKE YOU GOOD BEING LGBT+ DOES NOT MAKE YOU BAD BEING WHITE DOES NOT MAKE YOU GOOD BEING POC DOES NOT MAKE YOU BAD likewise BEING STRAIGHT DOES NOT MAKE YOU BAD BEING LGBT+ DOES NOT MAKE YOU GOOD BEING WHITE DOES NOT MAKE YOU BAD BEING POC DOES NOT MAKE YOU GOO listen I don't know how else to put it but assuming someone’s behavior/personality based on some label they fall under is super fucking bad??? A gay person can be bad. Being gay doesn't make them bad. A straight person can be good. Being straight doesn't make them good.  Piling up labels and making yourself out to be more of a minority doesn't justify shitty behavior  Stop making out anyone's who falls under a certain category to be something without getting to know them as an individual

[rantingcrocodile]

"Straight people as a class are oppressors, even if the men are the ones doing the actual oppressing, the women are just as bad as the men just for being straight" is essentially what you're saying. That by belonging to the class of straightness, straight women take responsibility for the oppressive actions of straight men. What systemic oppressive actions are straight women taking to actively put down lesbians and bisexuals? The rape, the abuse? That is men. The laws? Men control the government.

You're arguing that semantic labels take precedence over actions that happen in material reality. You are not arguing that straight women themselves actually wield power to put down and oppress systemically. Where are the masses of straight women oppressing lesbians and bis?

Straight women don't rape gay men the way straight men rape lesbians and bis. The worst oppression straight women in mass groups do is annoying fujoshi fetishism culture (which any normie gay guy who doesn't use the internet has never even heard of) and the miniscule amount of trans men who wanna guilt trip gay guys, who realistically have no damn power and mostly just whine on twitter (also easily avoided by staying in real life).

But what straight women do systemically against bis and lesbians is... what, exactly? Just be privileged and having straight boyfriends? Highschool bullying?

You sound like a MOC arguing that he can't possibly be part of the male, oppressive class towards women because it's actually white men that hold all the power. I hope you realise that.

In any case, it's not feminist to absolve certain groups of women from positions of privilege just because they happen to be women. It's just sheer ignorance and exactly why there are problems with homophobia, biphobia, racism, ableism and classism in the community.

Talking about privilege isn't a case of, "You were born evil for being straight, fuck you!" or anything so juvenile. It's about recognising that, as a straight woman, you're part of the privileged class of straight people. That has nothing to do with your oppression for being a woman. It just means that I, as a bisexual woman, have an intersection of the systemic oppression that comes from both men and straight people, just as lesbians have an intersection of the systemic oppression that comes from both men and straight people.

Dismissing what straight women will do to scoff that, basically, "at least it's not rape" is just downright ignorant.

Are you going to tell the LGB people who were beaten and disowned by their mothers that they can't be harmed by that because it's really men who are worse? Are you going to ignore the straight women who support straight men into sending their children to conversion therapy? The ones who prefer them to be trans rather than gay? The ones who murder their gay sons? Who murder their bisexual sons? The straight women who help murder lesbians? Who attack gay men?

You're dismissing "high school bullying" like that doesn't result in suicides.

By being straight, you started as an innocent child who grew up in a world that catered to you and taught you homophobia and biphobia. You need to work through that, just like everyone from every privileged group needs to work through the internalised bigotry created simply by living in a world that caters to you on that specific point of privilege.

Does that make you an inherently bad person? No, it doesn't, and no one with any sense would believe that, not if they understand what oppression and privilege actually means.

Tying yourself in knots to pretend that straight women don't help perpetuate systemic homophobia and biphobia just because you're not generally rapists as a group and scoffing that we can possibly have any issues coming from straight women just because you happen to also be women is ignorant and shows just how homophobic and biphobic you, personally, are.

There are plenty of straight women who know that they're part of the privileged straight group without feeling angry about acknowledging it. They understand that and support their sisters who are lesbians and bisexuals and condemn homophobia and biphobia.

If you felt like that was a personal attack instead, then that's on you to figure out why.