#does have a massive problem with racism

[atopfourthwall]

I wanna clarify up front that I both understand and agree with the "don't send death threats to creators" and the whole fan entitlement thing... but listening to Zeb Wells gleefully, smugly talk about how funny it is that people care about Ms Marvel and dismissing the criticism of his fridging her is absolutely fucking maddening, and kind of disgusting. Kamala Khan is a character who was massively meaningful to me, and has been massively meaningful to a LOT of brown girls who read comics. The whole treatment of her has been really, really gross - and tinged with more than a little bit of racism, not least of all the whole "Let's bring in the teenage muslim girl for one issue so she can die to save a white lady." Yes, she's going to come back soon, this whole thing is a marketing stunt to make her a mutant and MCU-ify her... which is gross in and of itself, but at least means she's not gone forever... but that's part of the problem. From start to finish the creative choices made for Kamala Khan during this arc feel incredibly exploitative, particularly because she is a woman of color - none of them are ABOUT HER. The creative team have made that abundantly clear, multiple times. Again - I am not gonna send anyone death threats, and no one should do that. But what do you do when creators seem to be actively trying to provoke that response? How are fans who are upset by this supposed to respond to this kind of overtly provocative dismissal of why this is significant to us, particularly those of us who AREN'T really represented particularly heavily in comics to begin with? How are we supposed to get Editorial to understand this is simply not okay when they seem to WANT backlash, and will treat ALL backlash as something positive or otherwise funny? I'm not buying any of the comics about "The Death of Ms Marvel", but I know other people will - and I'm worried that message could easily be interpreted as "People don't care about Kamala Khan anymore", which could lead to MORE mistreatment of her character. As someone who is very familiar with the industry and fan culture surrounding comics - what would your advice be in terms of expressing how shitty this decision was and how specifically terrible Zeb Wells and Nick Lowe's attitude have been to this whole situation?

There really are only two things you can do: -Talk about it - give the reasons why and discourage other people from buying it or anything else related to this debacle. Contact Marvel and say "As a fan and customer, I am upset and you are damaging future sales by doing this." Will people listen? Eh, maybe not, but you can't control what other people do or believe. -Now this is the really hard one, but it's the same one that I've stuck to: actually don't buy it. In fact, don't buy anything with Zeb Wells' name on it. Tell people "Do not buy anything with his name on it and this is why." And you have to stick to your guns on this. "Ms. Marvel is coming back already? No. Fuck you; you have made it clear you do not want me as a customer and my opinion does not matter. So I am washing my hands of this. Unless I can see that you recognize what a mistake this was, I will no longer be a customer. And I will tell others to not be customers." And I know that can be hard because you WANT to support the character, you WANT to read more stories with them, you feel you need to... but you have to let it go. Because otherwise they'll pull this shit again in 5 years because they think they can get away with it. And if they don't hear the message... well, that's their problem. This is their mess - they can revel in it and you're free of it. After all, if they're still producing the bullshit that you hated to begin with, why are you STILL giving them money? And this is why I still haven't bought a Peter Parker Spider-Man comic since One More Day - especially when, like Lucy and Charlie Brown, they keep yanking the football away at the last second for fixing it. They don't want my money? Fine. They won't get it.

[bigwishes]

KingKobra to UwUCobra

REQUEST:  Bonjour, could I maybe get another story? I think in this community a lot people write the typical jock transformation stories. And I mean, it is great. I do it quite often. But could you maybe write a more effeminate transformation for me? I try to do that every so often, just to keep things diverse and fresh. [trigger warning: racism and homophobia]

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This was Brayden aka KingKobra. A young 21 year old dude who had been into bodybuilding since he saw his first movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger when he was about 12 or 13. Ever since that day he wanted to be a massive, He loved the way chicks stared at him and he loved lifting weights. When Brayden went to college he found himself doing anything to avoid studying and mostly played video games after the gym. He decided to stream on twitch one night when his mates couldn’t join up but to his surprise he was a massive hit and he became one of the top Valorant streamers within a month. He couldn’t walk around campus anymore without someone calling out his gamer tag, which is how most people knew him now, the KingKobra.

The problem with a guy like Brayden getting as big a platform as he did was the fact that he was an asshole, and he gave other assholes a place to hang out. his channel was 100% straight male viewers between 18-28, even when girls or gay guys found him hot to look at they couldn’t handle his stream. He would constantly say racist, sexist and homophobic shit. Other streamers, especially the ones within the campus community refused to collab with him and there was a collection of “Beating KingKobra for The Girls & Gays” meme video’s on Youtube made by other streamers who beat him in a game but that only added fuel to Brayden’s fire. One afternoon something came up in Brayden’s recommended, a YouTube video from another streamer titled “Cutting off Kobra’s Head” it was a montage of Brayden dying in the video game over and over to some funky pop song. The streamer who made it was GetGlockBlocked. GGB was a masc gay Indian guy who not only competed against Brayden in game and for views but also competed against him in the gym GGB was just as big and just as strong as Brayden and this video sent him over the edge, he knew exactly what to do to get his fans behind him and so he started streaming, within seconds of going live he had hundreds of guys watching. “Hey bros, KingKobra here, just wanted to do a quick reaction to a video posted by GetGlockBlocked who thinks he is better than me, so here we go” Brayden played the video pretending it was his first time watching, every time he died to his competitor there was some excuse to undermine GGB’s skill. His viewers got fired up following along as hate speech. The video ended and Brayden told his chat his final thoughts. “I mean, yeah bro its a montage to a catchy tune but fuckin. Glock, bro, all you do is play fucking Killjoy and Sage, fucking skill less agents, but I mean I know the fags like those characters and your whole brand is teaching bitches and fags to ‘carry’ with them but your team does everything and then you put a turret kill in a montage and call it skill, like okay bro” Brayden’s chat was losing their mind, shouting homophobic and racial slurs. People even started clipping what he said and sending it to GGB. “Listen bros, he might have his girlie fucking montage video but just remember after college Ill be Mr Olympia getting paid to play video games and he’ll be driving a fucking taxi” Brayden couldn’t contain his laughter and his chat only egged him on further. After watching the video he streamed for a few hours and then went to bed. In the morning he saw a post about GGB taking a break for a week and laughed, exactly what he knew would happen once he made his review of the montage, his fans hate raided GGB on twitch, twitter and about every other site they could. That’d teach him a lesson, no one fucks with the KingKobra.

Something else was on Brayden’s phone too, a PM on twitter. He thought it would be some fucking scrawny nerd asking for his workout routine again but it was from someone else, someone named “GGBs Biggest Fan” “I hate you and your community, why do you seriously need to bully other streamers. You are so fucking toxic, is your dick actually that fucking small that you need to make up for it with ego? apologise or suffer the consequences” Brayden scoffed at the message and simply replied

“I’m not KingKobra coz I think snakes are cool, I'm called that coz my cock is 9 inches bro, aint gotta make up for shit”

Brayden’s phone suddenly sparked and electrocuted his hand. It hurt like a bitch but something else happened, a tingling all over his body. His dick got hard and he got horny, his huge muscular frame is his bathroom mirror was such a turn on all of a sudden, he knew he was hot but he never jerked off to himself before? the sensation in his body got stronger and stronger. Brayden started to jerk off but his dick felt numb, it didn’t relieve the hormonal pressure constantly building in his body. He bit down on his lip as he started to feel himself up, his hands going on auto pilot sliding along his body to his waist when a thought crossed his mind. The thought of a huge muscled guy putting his large hands on Brayden’s waist and biting down on his neck. “what the fuck why am I..” he moaned out loud, he wasn’t a fag, he thought but he couldn’t string his thoughts together as he just got hornier and hornier. Instinctively his hands found his was to his ass and he shoved 2 of his meaty finger inside himself letting out the loudest moan of his life.

He...didn’t want to do this, at least he didn’t think he did. He kept going, unable to stop, it felt better and better by the second. Moaning every time he started to hear a change, with each noise he made his deep masculine voice got high and higher. Something else was happening to as he watched his body begin to shrink in the bathroom mirror. His 6.4ft frame strank down to 5.4ft and his muscle deflated like a balloon, tears welled in his eyes as he realised the long he pleased himself like this the worse the changes were, but he couldn’t stop, it felt so good. When his voice stopped changing and his body stopped shrinking the pleasure only got better, and Brayden went faster and faster, seeing now the last things to change. His 9 inch dick slowly shrunk down until it was a mere 2 inches and his ass began to balloon hot. It already had a muscular ass but now it was twice as big and perky. He finally came, the clarity completely setting in that something fucking weird happened and all his hard work and manliness had been stripped away.

his hips were sider and his mid section sucked in from underworked lats. He still had muscle but only to shape his body, there was no strength or bulk behind him anymore just shape, purely made to be sexy. “nyah, like, ah, what the fuck” his newly stereotypical voice cried out. Even the way he spoke had changed.

Brayden’s phone buzzed as multiple emails came in but the main one he saw was from Twitch [Topic: change of channel name SUCCESSFUL]. Brayden opened the phone to check his channel seeing the name changed to “UwUCobra”. The profile of a cartoon Cobra holding a gun in its tail and been swapped out for one of his new body in a tight maids outfit and his banner once covered an overly stylised, overly masculine mess of guns and girls was replaced with bright pink, love hearts and his new body posing in a sexy way.

“Oh, my, gwad. surely if I start streaming, the guys will notice the change, ya? that’s my way back, ya?”

He ran to his computer and started a stream and soon hundred of guys had flocked to his channel. another message appeared on his phone.

“don’t think I forgot about your fans bestie!!!”

As Brayden read his twitch chat he didn’t think anything was different, the same super masc guys commenting, talking the same, until a few outliers began to appear. “Put on the maid outfit!!” “Wanna come sit on daddy’s face??” “Only Fans when?” KingKobra had created the most toxic disgusting community on twitch, filled with guys who thought it was fine to sexually harass girls at bars or online, he encouraged it, he thought it was funny but now the world was different, reality had shifted. When he checked his viewer demographic it was no long 100% straight men, it was 100% gay men. His viewers had been transformed as well, but unlike him who became a tiny gay twink his viewers were the same assholes, the only difference now was they were guys who wanted to fuck Brayden. KingKobra was gone, deleted, Now Brayden was the UwUCobra, forever being treated like an object meant for sex and pleasure rather than a person. Months had gone by since his change and every day he regretted not being a nicer guy because now he knew what it was like to live with having 1000s of guys sending you unwanted dick picks or demanding he make on only fans.

[doctorofmagic]

TW: racism, antiziganism, whitewashing, uses of g slur, fatphobia, misgendering, ageism, toxic fandom, long post.

This post is a bit off topic but, as someone who has been following Marvel’s comic book industry for almost ten years now, I feel like it’s my duty to use my voice and not be quiet about the blatant shit show that is happening to a character that is also a member of the magic community and has been suffering a lot lately in the hands of people who have little to no regard towards her heritage.

It was just a rumor back then (and Donny Cates even denied it in the past) but it does seem that Feige is using the MCU to influence comic books in most recent runs, ESPECIALLY regarding certain characters.

Now, let’s be honest. This is not new. We all remember when the cast of the Fantastic Four reboot died in a explosion in the pages of Punisher #12, eight years ago. A clear retaliation at the movie and FOX’s terrible decisions. We all know that this is probably the reason why the first family book was cancelled as well. The group remained in the shadows and only Reed had a decent spotlight thanks to New Avengers v3 and Secret Wars, disappearing next along with Sue, the kids and the Future Foundation. They only returned fully with a new volume in 2018, and most fans’ dreams and hopes slowly died out with Dan Slott’s bad takes and writing (erasing Franklin’s X gene, putting three women to fight over a man, reversing Infamous Doom to his villain self and throwing away his character development just because he wanted Victor as a villain etc etc etc).

Very well. Still, the FF survived. No one reversed Galactus into a cosmic cloud. No one turned Victor into a metallic guy with electric powers who wanted to marry Sue (thank the Vishanti). And whatever happened in the reboot (which I didn’t watch) certainly wasn’t adapted into comics.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not here to gatekeep comic books. In fact, I’ve been committed to introducing them to my followers since day 1 on this hellsite. Unlike many fans, I didn’t grow up with them. Movies had a huge influence on me and I had a long journey. Movies and animated TV shows are part of the reason I dove into this universe, in the first place. Which is fine. I can take a bad adaption and move on.

What I can’t take is what they’re trying to do with Wanda, because it reeks of racism.

The whole point of this new Wanda volume is to give her the proper representation and atone for the years of colorism, a systematic problem that keeps happening in the industry. Just because she was portrayed as white in the past, it doesn’t mean she’s not a woc, especially when it’s said in canon that she has dark skin. There are plenty of roma people talking on this matter and how it’s meaningful to acknowledge that Wanda is brown, even when white roma people exist (1, 2, 3, 4).

The crew is in fact very committed to it, as stated by Steve Orlando here:

Now, what is happening to the new Scarlet Witch volume? Two things. The blatant whitewashing in variant covers and their need to push the MCU into 616!Wanda, first by introducing Darcy and now deaging Agatha.

Let’s be clear. There was a MASSIVE effort from the team to portray Wanda's heritage, which has been constantly dismissed by the lack of effort from the artists.

Here’s one example, from Jeehyung Lee, tracing what I think is a k-pop singer (but I don't really remember her name so correct me if I’m wrong). In any case, she was traced over a korean woman. This is not the first problem with this artist since he also made the same with Storm’s model in MFF by tracing Charlize Theron over Ororo.

In addition to anti-blackness, this is also an issue of interchangeable ethnicity, the same that happened to America Chavez, when she’s established as Puerto Rican, not Mexican, as the pin on her jacket suggests (and yes, her cast is also filled with anti-blackness. Nothing against Xochitl, but I touched this matter before when I wrote about DSIMOM. And yes, TAO’s MCU is also bad, very bad, very very very bad).

I just keep seeing this over and over again. You shouldn't be defending her whiteness. You *SHOULDN'T*. Unless you have a problem that Wanda is a brown romani woman. It’s imperative that people understand that representation matters and poc have been time and time whitewashed in this very same industry (Sunspot/Roberto da Costa is just one example and was also whitewashed in that terrible New Mutants adaptation).

The issue here is to push a problematic and harmful portrayal of Wanda on her comic book version. And it’s only happening to her due to the popularity of said character and artist.

More thant that, her stans ARE using Olsen’s Wanda to shield racism. Some of you are actually not even hiding it. The following is a list of racist comments and accounts. I’ll leave them under the cut in case people don’t want to see it.

Regarding the WV variant cover for Wanda #3 by David Nakamura:

And plain racism overall:

On a side note...

Just today I was harassed by this troll here. And no, I’m not hiding your @ because you went to MY post and felt compelled to misgender me, be fatphobic and also god knows why felt entitled to call Wanda ableist (????)

As I said, I didn’t grow up with comics. When I first met Wanda, I didn’t know she was neither Roma, Jewish or brown. And this itself is a problem because it should be clear, it should have been portrayed in the comics, it should have been common knowledge. All it takes is just to listen to people and understand the systematic racism and whitewashing in the comic book and cinema industries.

They ALWAYS double down on Wanda’s whiteness. No, darling, it’s not okay to stan two versions of the same character when time and time the marginalized one is a target of racism. When they weaponize every single attempt at calling out the harm that MCU has caused on her character to the point of even using reverse racism, ableism and many other blatant lies to slander 616!Wanda, when her MCU can do pretty much whatever she wishes because she’s white so that’s okay. And don’t even dare bring feminism here because you don’t care about woc. You only care about white women.

In any case, I just want to shed light on this matter because this effort of pushing MCU into comics isn’t happening to any other Marvel character, ESPECIALLY when the change is for the better. Wong is powerful, body-positive and having more than one-dimensional relationship in the MCU. Where’s the effort to do that in comics? Layla is literally the best part of Moon Knight. Where is she?

Why they want so bad to push a white woman on a book that is supposed to praise Wanda’s romani heritage? It’s obvious that they want to sell and some execs are siding with the portion of this toxic and racist fandom.

Comics are not perfect, we know that. But there has been a huge effort to support the marginalized voices in this industry. Marvel’s Voices, pride and heritage are all examples. Besides, they’ve always been political. Always.

What they’re doing to Wanda is evil and lazy. As an artist and colorist, it’s YOUR DUTY to search and at least be aware of what characters you’re trying to conceive. There’s no way variant artists didn’t see the main cover for issue #1 by Dauterman.

This is not just ignorance. It’s a statement. A statement that it’s okay to ignore a marginalized group and its attempt to give visibility to said group. And Orlando knew that when he said he didn’t have control over the rest of the creative team.

It’s fine if the MCU wants to push some elements like they did in the past. But this is not just any element. It’s harmful and I’ll not be quiet about it. 616!Wanda is getting more and more marginalized, whereas her whitewashed version is praised and loved. And now there’s an attempt at reconciling both as if it was okay. It’s not. MCU!Wanda doesn’t know racism. MCU!Wanda joined Hydra. MCU!Wanda has the privilege 616!Wanda could never afford for being a brown roma woman. And now the racist fandom wants to claim both in order to erase 616!Wanda’s heritage and history of fighting racism.

All I can ask is, if you’re buying this comic book, DO NOT SUPPORT the variant covers. Let them rot. We know the racists are not supporting the book anyways. They’ll just buy the variant cover and that’s it.

PS: I’m not Roma so feel free to correct me in any aspect. Just using my voice to boost awareness.

PS²: Olsen stans DNI or else will be blocked at sight. I’m done with every single of you.

[teaveetamer]

I would honestly take seriously people saying that 3H's story is better then Engage if they could at least explain their point as to what 3H's story does better, and i stress the main plot because "3H has a political commentary, speaks of theme like racism and elitism, Engage has non of that !" seems more like a "3H has what i like whereas Engage doesn't!" arguments

It’s the same problem I have with people who hate Fates. Generally they just say “story bad” but if you actually try to get into any nitty gritty story discussion with them it’s clear that they have NO idea what they’re even criticizing at this point. They either can’t bring up anything specific, or if they do bring up something specific it’s usually something that’s actually explained/justified LATER in the story.

Like people saying Corrin is stupid for siding with Nohr because “they’re clearly evil” when by like chapter 11 Corrin is LITERALLY SAYING that they know Garon is evil, but they’re sticking around for their family and because they believe they can better change things from the inside.

Also 3H’s “political commentary” is shallow as fuck by the game’s very nature of never wanting to commit to anything. How can you critique anything when you present every single option as equally valid and correct methods of going about things? I mean. It literally has people in this fandom saying shit like “what if a genocide was good, actually?” and if THAT is ever the message you walk away with, the game has failed on every single front as a commentary on anything.

The game is, ironically, exactly the kind of bland centrist cowardice the people who tout it as fantastic political commentary claim to hate. It waffles between “ideology” so often it effectively says nothing, because it’s a product created in our capitalist hellscape to try and appeal to the largest number of people and generate the most profit. It’s the fuckin’ game equivalent of massive corporations slapping a rainbow flag onto their products in June but then donating unconscionable amounts of money to Republican super PACs. And people eat it up! Because having two diametrically opposed viewpoints in the same product isn’t seen as inconsistent or bad writing anymore, it’s ✨morally grey✨

So uh, yeah. Even if the fun love and friendship nostalgia romp isn’t 3Deep5Me I’d say it’s definitely preferable to bland noncommittal “politics” of 3H. At least it has a consistent worldview and a consistent message.

[aprofessionalwithoutstandards]

On the topic of fem fortress, I agree and disagree. For the record I fall under the trans umbrella myself as well and I used the have the same opinion. You are entitled to your opinion of course but calling gender swapped art transphobic is a little too much. My problem with gender swapped art is if they make the female version without wrinkles or without the same body type. If you want to draw the mercs as trans that is totally fine and awesome but again calling people transphobic for drawing vid versions of characters sounds like a little bit of projection no offence. If someone were to draw me as a gender swapped version of me as cis personally I wouldn’t care. And again I’m only talking for me here but calling someone transphobic over something as small as this is taking away from actually transphobia that us real living people have to deal with. I don’t think I’ll change your mind and that’s ok with me. I hope you’ll at least consider this point of view. Love your blog and I hope you have a nice day.

Anon I genuinely do not want to be mean but like. do you know how to read? Nowhere in that post do I say "all genderbent art is transphobic" and I specifically disclaim that I do NOT think that because I KNEW this was the kind of reaction I would get. I can't help but feel like you are either intentionally or unintentionally misrepresenting what I said in order to make my critique sound more outlandish and unreasonable and craaaaaazy and thus easier to disagree with than it is, which is something that Always fucking happens to me whenever I talk about transphobia as a trans person, biphobia as a bi person, racism as a Latino person, etc, someone misrepresenting my argument to make me look like an oversensitive "triggered" idiot for even daring to see bigotry in something "small". I understand that YOU might feel comfortable with people whose genderbent art is like "the thing that makes this character a man is that he was born with a penis and ascribes to all cis standards of 'masculinity' and the thing that makes my new genderbend a woman is that she was born with a vagina and ascribes to all cis standards of 'femininity'" but I don't! I would not want someone to "genderbend" me and make me cis! I do not think it "takes away from 'REAL' transphobia" (whatever that means, transphobia in media and fiction is still transphobia and still affects people in real life) to say that "associating the gender of a character with the 'biological sex' of that character is cissexist" and/or "showing that you have 'genderbent' a 'male' character by making them ascribe more heavily to 'female' beauty standards is not just transphobic but misogynistic" (MASSIVE FUCKING PROBLEM with "fem fortress" designs, since when is Medic tf2 thin and petite or since when does Sniper tf2 wear makeup and a crop top and since when do either of them not have any wrinkles), that's like. completely normal media critique. I know that a lot of my followers enjoy "fem fortress" and I have tried to be as nice as I can about my critiques of SOME VERSIONS of it because of this, but like you need to be able to take critique of things that you enjoy. Nowhere do I say "all genderbend art is transphobic" but it seems like people are rejecting that for "no genderbend art is transphobic" which is just objectively untrue. I enjoy tf2 and I am able to make and take critiques of it, especially things like its portrayal of women characters (or lack thereof), but not everyone can. I would like to be able to talk about misogyny, biphobia, racism, or transphobia within this game and/or its fandom just once without someone inevitably coming to tell me "it's not that bad and you're just overreacting". I guess I'm not saying you have to agree with me but maybe try actually listening to what I say and not knee-jerk react like this bc I lightly criticized something you enjoy (which I have even praised in other posts, wouldn't you know! I think fem fortress is fun!)

[the-official-account]

Is it just me, or does lesbian fandom have a problem?

My name is Edil. I've been a medium-sized name in several small fandoms, especially podcast fandoms. I am also a women appreciator, and enjoy media that centers on women. I'm going to mostly be talking about my experiences in two fandoms: The Strange Case Of Starship Iris and Pasithea Powder, both podcasts with central wlw ships, though I've also seen these same issues in Goncharov (1973) of all places.

When I go into fandom I go hard. My brain, which is very autistic, breaks down information of small details for fun. It's the reason why I wrote a dwarnian (TSCOSI's fictional alien language) dictionary for the podcast. The reason why I have a massive notes document on all of Pasithea's season one and the reason the wiki...looks and reads like that. It isn't owned by me, but most of the formatting, fonts, content: yours truly.

And I'm proud of these projects, which took time and effort and skill building to do! But I haven't finished or caught up with either of these podcasts, and that's because the online spaces that center around them have been overwhelmingly hostile.

I have a strong emotional connection to this issue — of whether or not sapphic fandoms tend to be more hostile to diversity, especially race and nuerodivergance — so I can't make a distinct analysis, not without more distance and more information. That's part of why I am making this post.

Mods and members of the TSCOSI discord circa 2020 will know me, and know why I left. That being a series of unwarranted criticisms and bad faith readings that left me with anxiety even interacting with the fandom I loved.

I am probably a lot less known in the Pasithea fandom, because I wrote fewer fics for it and left more quickly. After TSCOSI, I recognized resentment faster. But the Pasithea notes document that I've posted here before and the wiki, three fics, fan art and that one comic that's still to this day the only comic I've drawn: me.

This is not a callout post, not for individuals or for groups, and I don't have screenshots. I am only trying to open a discussion.

See, the pattern that I am seeing is that fandom spaces centering on wlw ships attract fans who are wlw. And while nothing is inherently wrong with that, issues in the lesbian community start to become very obvious.

Firstly, the lack of diversity in sexuality among most of the fan base (As I suspect bi and gay people have largely more popular media that attracts them, and lesbians have to dig deeper for smaller spaces like these podcast) starts to feed this sense of possession among fans. As if there is a correct, normal, or standard way to be sapphic. A set of rules stating that anyone who doesn't obey it hates lesbians.

From Pasithea, I got this in comments about how I was drawing the characters "ugly" (Jane is canonically fat and has a scar, which I made very visible...because I wanted to. I gave her strong Hispanic features because it appealed to me. Sophie is butch, and canonically has or had a buzz cut. Which is what I drew. — The "appearance" section of the wiki? Yup. I wrote that.)

These comments, which were themselves problematic, came from a place of implying I was lesbiphobic for drawing these wlw as "ugly". When in fact, I was drawing the type of characters that would appeal the most to me, and hopefully to others like me.

These expectations of skinny, eurocentric appearing, usually feminine characters... Well it reflects a lot of issues with TERF-y feminism and lesbianism at large. Lesbianism on the internet has an issue with gender essentialism that isn't universal but is incredibly worrying. And when WOC are often masculinized because of their non-white features, that transphobia becomes anti-butchness (or strict standards of butchness) and racism.

While TSCOSI fans were more receptive to my designs, I was drawing in a less realistic style where "ugly" was less of an issue — and, to be frank, The main ship being Southeast and South Asian made it hard to draw them "ugly" from a eurocentric perspective. Realism there would just be...exotic, I guess.

However, with TSCOSI fans there was still a sense of possession around how these characters were interpreted, especially in headcannons, that lead to me deleting more than I posted as time went on. Some of those were genuine issues on my part ("what if the Jewish guy was a vampire in a au haha!" I said. Then went to bed, woke up, googled it, and went "NOPE! NOPE!!! SORRY.") Others were just unnecessary, such as comments on how silly head cannons were "unrealistic", and how I should write more cannon compliant work, rather than what I was doing for fun.

Ultimately these are the ONLY things that made me stop listening to these podcasts. The ONLY reason I put down the projects I poured consecutive hyperfixate weeks into. Part of me thinks it was this enthusiasm in the first place that was the biggest threat others reacted to in how I spoke and acted.

For instance, in trying to write for both the TSCOSI and Pasithea wikis, I had folks try to change my methods of research and writing to a style that worked best for them. When I said they were welcome to work that way, there was no offers to assist. And communication with those who had established work was either non-existent or hostile. I've had people question if my passion projects were necessary, berate me for meaningless mistakes, and treat what could be fun collaborative work like a pissing contest. For TSCOSI, none of this occurred on the wiki, and mostly around documents I owned for my own note taking. Even then, the hostility of Wikipedia culture is an unnecessary and hurtful thing to bring into fandom wiki culture.

The TSCOSI people went on to make a wonderful wiki that I deeply admire, but I still wish I could have been part of that project in its infancy, instead of being pushed away. (I may have made the navigation system if I remember correctly, but I'm not certain. So this is not to say I was not allowed any input whatsoever.)

I love sapphic media, it's my bread, butter, pride, joy, and favorite past time. But time and time again I have found far safer social spaces for media that centers around gay men, even if it isn't my personal first choice.

As a non-white, non-allistic, non-lesbian, not-skinny fan...I have concerns.

I know you all want sapphic media to get more attention. I want that too. But unless you start actively searching for and calling out bigotry in those spaces, it absolutely cannot and will not happen. So much of fandom is powered by autistic people with time on their hands, and I want there to be space for people like me. Who get TOO excited, TOO far from cannon, TOO analytical about race and class and fatphobia and whatever else.

Sapphic media obviously has issues reaching fans that aren't the fault it's its current audience. But the good thing about being part of or close to a problem, is having the power to make incredible, effective change.

I refuse to leave these podcasts behind, I love them more than anything, and the projects I got out of them are still my beloved brain children (The alien calligraphy from the random writing system I made for dwarnian is still up on my wall. "It is what. It IS what, keeps us from the abyss.") I refuse to be shoved aside my racist fans and random people who assume they can act rudely to strangers because they treated characters or lore differently. I refuse to be sidelined from conversations just cause I can act weird.

But I also refuse to spend so much of my beloved labor on people who turn up their noses and belittle it.

This all has had a lasting effect on how I interact with fandom, a legitimate fear-responce to the idea of trying to engage deeply with women-centered podcasts. Something I'm trying to unlearn and overcome.

So. There's my explanation of why I don't do tscosi anymore, which I mentioned on the minibang I'd eventually follow up on. And a criticism of sapphic fandom which, I'll be real, I have a few more essays worth of commentary about, and it's also another expression of how I stare longingly at Pasithea every time it comes up on my dash.

But, most importantly, this is my question of whether anyone else has found themselves in a similar place. If it's a trend or an anecdote.

If you have thoughts, please reblog with them. I'd love to know what you have to say.

[olderthannetfic]

Old topic, but what are people referring to when they say something is "fandom racism?" Is it people harrasing actors on twitter? Ignoring non-white characters in stories? Someone's fic getting less attention than others? I have spent YEARS reading peoples blogs trying to figure this out and honestly, while I figure there probably are some real problems of people being dicks, a lot of the accusations just seem to be shipping wank. Just, I want to believe people, but the talk seems empty/bitter.

--

Depends on the context.

When they're trying to score points off of other fanfic types, they generally conflate non-fanfic fans being massive shitheads to John Boyega on twitter with shipping statistics on AO3.

(My personal stance is that the laying pipe thing was mildly tasteless at worst and people need to chill about it, that the way the internet at large lobs racist invective at him is outrageous, and that AO3 shipping stats are not activism... but also Kylo sucks and you should ship finnpoe because it's objectively hotter, not because it's more morally pure.)

And yes, your suspicions are extremely justified. There is some fic on AO3 that I think any reasonable person would agree is race kink of the 'big black cock' variety. It's pretty rare, and you really have to go looking for it, but it's there. There's some fic that's unconsciously casually racist in how it treats the background POC in fics focusing on their white castmates.

And I don't mean the fact that they're in the background. I mean shit like those old SGA fics lierdumoa always uses as examples where the white people are scientists and the nonwhite people are janitors or the white people are dog walkers and the nonwhite people are... yes... the dogs in the AU. (Author, why?!) Those particular ones are pretty old, but that kind of pattern shows up on newer fics on AO3 all the time.

But most things linked to directly during wank are not clear cases like this. Often, the accusation will be that the fic is about BBC, but the content is the partner having a size kink for feeling full. Or one character tops in all the fic, and I agree the pattern suggests some underlying racism, but the individual fics treat the character fine.

It's usually just 'wrong guy topped' and 'wrong ship is popular' wank.

Pretending otherwise does nothing to make fans of color safer or AO3 better.

[ianthe-is-a-bitch-and-i-love-her]

Okay I actually want to talk about the discourse a bit, because it stretches to TLT as well and if I can head it off before it blows up here too that would be just fantastic.

So background - C.L. Clark (author of The Unbroken, if you follow my blog you will probably like that book so go read it) put out an essay about the narrative role of butch characters in fiction, with a particular focus on their position as sacrificial paladin archetypes in tlt and Baru. This is not the discourse. I think it's a well-written and interesting essay that raises points and ideas well-worth considering, even if I don't categorically agree.

The discourse is the spinoff take I've seen from a few tumblr users accusing tlt and Baru of perpetuation bigoted and harmful stereotypes/messaging by having butch women of color killed off to further the narratives of more feminine, "whiter" characters, and that this is specifically because the authors of both these books are white. Which is... A Lot, so let's take that one point at a time (massive spoilers for both series, obviously).

Working backwards, I unequivocally disagree with the idea that Baru and Harrow are "whiter" than Tain Hu and Gideon respectively. Baru and Hu are explicitly both women of color, while the only solid information we have on Harrow's and Gideon's ethnicities are word of God, which I believe I've made my feelings known about, but if we go by that, they're also both women of color. I hope I don't need to elaborate on why it's kinda fucked to accuse one POC of being whiter than another. If we give the benefit of the doubt and assume they were coming at this from a colorism standpoint instead of a racism one, the first off, Baru and Hu are right out - Falcrest is obsessive about ethnic traits, so we can actually be pretty confident that if anything, Hu would be lighter than Baru. For Harrow and Gideon; maybe. Harrow is implied to be lighter than Gideon, although in the absence of a pattern or any other factors to indicate bigotry - and as I'll get to, there aren't others - I wouldn't call it a problem. Also, on this point, one person specifically called out one of Gideon's descriptions of Harrow's skin as grey as "tazmuir being gross about POC's skin tones" rather than something in universe like "Harrow is extremely sickly" and "Gideon's conception of Harrow as the embodiment of the Ninth colors even her most mundane observations of Harrow". Obviously, I think the in-universe explanation tracks a whole lot better.

Okay, second - dying for more feminine characters. The implication being that these narratives are punishing butch characters for not being feminine enough. I take issue with this primarily because Baru and Harrow aren't so much more feminist as they are less masculine. Neither of them are exactly performing feminity for funsies, and Harrow is even actively uncomfortable when forced into situations where it might be expected of her. I think it's worth considering why butch characters often find themselves in sacrificial roles (and if that interests you too, I'd again recommend Clark's essay) but in these books, it's very much not a punishment for not performing feminity.

Then there's the matter of this automatically being worse because it shows up in books by white authors. It's a valid point that white authors are often inherently less sensitive about issues of race in their writings, since it's something that's had less of an impact on their lived experiences. But that does not make white people incapable of writing narratives involving race well or deftly, and, in the absence of a genuine issue of racist writing, pointing at the author and saying, "white!" doesn't create one.

Finally, and most importantly, there's the implication that these butch women are being killed off solely or primarily as a prop for the emotional development of a less butch woman. With regards to tlt, I want to first point out that Gideon does not, in fact, stay dead, so I think the argument falls flat pretty abruptly there. Her character is not subsumed by Harrow's emotional arc. I have further thoughts on the matter as well, but they heavily draw from my Nona ARC, so I'm putting a pin in that one for a couple of months. The stuff with Baru, however, definitely merits a longer discussion since Hu actually does die permanently, and she is absolutely critical to Baru's emotional arc. I think the key here, though, is that her death does a lot more for the story than give Baru angst. Her death contributes critically to the book's thesis about the nature of Empire, the harms it inherently does, the refutations to the idea that there is any such thing as a just peace under imperialism.

Or, to put it another way, a GNC person dies in a story about a monster that eats GNC people. Color me outraged.

[elbiotipo]

Not to add anything further to the "party" you had yesterday but I think the points they were trying to make is that even if you are from South America you're still white and benefit from whiteness in a racist society; and also it seemed tou were lumping all Americans together while disregarding the specific problems Black and Indigenous people face in the US, just because they live in a "first world country".

Example for better understanding: Messi has much more privilege than Mbappe despite one being from South America and the other being from Europe for very obvious reasons.

I told myself that I wouldn't argue again, but this is true, and I do thank you for pointing it out. Even as frustrating as the latest conversations have been, I do not want to dismiss the fact that minorities in the United States are victims of racist oppression, or that white people in Latin America do not also have privilege because of the racism that exists in our societies.

However, to add your your example, Mbappé is French and European, thus citizen of a first-world nation, and also, like Messi, someone of a high socioeconomic status. This does grant someone like him different privileges over people of the third world, and one expects people from the first world to have the conscioussness of their status and why do they have the socioeconomic wealth and power they hold. Concepts such as privilege do not only go through race or ethnicity, they are multilayered through many factors.

This is why a "Whites vs. PoC" conception is massively flawed, and a poor way to see the world in my opinion, especially with as arbitrary as a concept race is. In fact, to divide the world between "white countries" and others is a major goal of nazism and white supremacy, and thus such thinking is, in my opinion and as harsh as it sounds, its mirror image.

One could argue that a first-world/third-world dichotomy also has its flaws, but it is in my opinion more comprehensive.

This is the last post (again) I'm gonna do about this, because you did make a good argument and I want to end this with a little more nuance. Thank you for your ask.

[moonlit-sunflower-books]

writing south indian characters

[@/moonlit_sunflower_books on ig]

The primary Indian story that is told through modern literature and media is a very North-Indian focused narrative, and while there's nothing wrong with that, there's a massive lack of south Indian representation. Often we're sort of ostracised from other Indians as well, so i thought i'd make a post outlining how to write South Indian characters talking about the differences between our cultures :)

If you have anything to add or things to point out, please go ahead! This is all based on my own personal experience and knowledge.

how do you define "south indian"

"South Indian" is used as a very broad term and is also highly relative. Generally, it encompasses people from the states of Kerala, Karnataka, Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana. The problem with grouping all these characters under one massive umbrella is that our cultures are all vastly different, the same way that someone from Assam and Punjab would have entirely different. I'm going to elaborate on this further as we go!

food

South Indian food, contrary to popular belief, does not consist of idli and dosa.

Some examples of more food are bisi bele bath, pongal and vathakuzhambu (i promise it's not that hard to pronounce), sambhar shadam (a type of rice and curry), rasam, coconut-based kormas, tamarind rice, chakkarai pongal (which is sweet), vadai (yes we pronounce it differently from North Indians), mysore pak, lime rice, our famous filter coffee (or "kaapi"), and so much more.

South Indian food is more rice-heavy than grain-heavy, and we don't really have a roti equivalent. There's also a lot of non-vegetarian food, but since I'm vegetarian, I don't know a whole lot about it :)

There's also obvious language differences: for example, in a Tamilian household, we would call curd rice "thayir shadam", which means the same thing. Which brings me to my next point...

languages

There is a reason that there's a debate as to whether or not Hindi should be the national language. Spoiler alert: it should not.

South India is home to so many languages such as Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malyalam. Very often someone from North India will make the assumption that Indian people speak Hindi, whereas this is completely untrue - South Indians should not be expected to speak Hindi any more than North Indians should be expected to speak Tamil.

If you're writing about a South Indian character, make sure that they speak their native language and NOT Hindi at home! And if it's a South Indian character who lives in a different part of the country, like I do, they'll likely know the language of the part of the country they live in as well as their native language. (But this also depends - if a Telugu person has grown up in Delhi, they're likely to speak Hindi better than Telugu.)

Even characters that live abroad will have some connection to their language. As someone who spent many years outside India, I learnt quite a bit of random vocabulary in the form of food and short phrases like "look here", "what do you want", "what happened", and things like that.

fashion

The South Indian version of a lehenga is called a pavada or pavadai, and it's often what younger girls wear at any formal or festive event. Older women will often wear saris. Traditionally, Brahmins used to wear 9 yard saris that were tied differently, but in an attempt to eradicate the caste system, this largely isn't worn anymore.

Men wear veshtis, which is a type of cloth tied around the waist. Traditionally, this would have been worn without a shirt, but today it's not uncommon to see people walking around with a veshti and formal shirt.

Keep in mind, though, India has become really westernised, so many people will also jeans and shirts and things like that. Fusing ethnic and western wear, like jeans with kurta tops, is not uncommon.

It also varies a lot from region to region - in Chennai you're much more likely to see someone walking around casually in a sari than you are in Bangalore, simply because of the culture that surrounds the two cities.

physically

South Indians stereotypically have much thicker, curlier hair and darker skin than North Indians. (But this obviously varies from person to person.)

names

Within South Indian names, it's fairly easy to tell where someone is from - and this is true of any micro-region, state, or culture within India.

Some examples of Tamil names could include "Srinivasan", "Iyer", or "Pillai". (Iyer and Iyengar are actually two sub-sects of Tamilian Brahmins who worship Shiva and Vishnu respectively, but I won't get into that.) Telugu surnames could include "Komati" or "Nayak".

But traditionally, South Indians never had surnames. There would be 2-3 initials that stood for one's village name and father's name, followed by your name. So, for example, C. V. Raman was his full name! Some people still use this system, but because it becomes difficult during documentation etc, most people have switched to the westernised version of the system.

general culture

Two of my personal favourite parts of South Indian culture are Carnatic Music and Bharatnatyam, both of which I have learnt. Carnatic music is a form of classical music where one sings varnams and shlokas and padams in different raagas and taalams. Bharatnatyam is a classical dance form from Tamilnadu with two main styles - Thanjavur and Kalakshetra.

Of course, there are millions of little aspects to South Indian culture, but I couldn't possibly fit them all here :)

being south indian

Being South Indian in other parts of India means that you're subject to a whole lot of racism.

I've had people say "how can you call yourself a real indian" and, like I said earlier, use words like "dosa" and "pongal" instead of my name. There's also language-based discrimination like I mentioned, because many people assume Hindi should be spoken across the country.

The caste system is also very prominent, and there are multiple movements to eradicate it across South India.

[melishade]

Z-King: Hey in the human kids Trio AU do you think Eren would be jealous around Jack after hearing some the things Jack did including being trusted with the Key to Vector Sigma and heard from Miko and Ralf that Ratchet said Jack was a lot like Optimus?

TFP Kids Part 1

TFP Kids Part 2

Hm...I think it would be a mixed reaction. Because Eren was already aware of Jack, Miko, and Raf before they arrived to the AOP world in this timeline. Optimus told Eren about Earth and them in one of the Oneshot chapters on Ao3. Megatron alludes to them during the coup when he and Eren are having that fight. Megatron calls them a threat, and he believes it. Hell, Jack had the chance to kill him in the mine but chose not to.

But I think that Eren would be jealous of all three kids for different reasons. Not because Jack got entrusted the key to Vector Sigma, Miko killing an Insecticon by herself, or Raf giving Decepticon tech experts the run around.

No, he'd be jealous of them, because they are living the freest lives possible! Jack, Miko, and Raf are from a world where titans don't exist. There's no Marley or Eldia. They live in a place where food is not only in abundance, but even in excess. Miko wasn't even born in the US. She's from another continent. On top of that, they get to know someone as amazing as Optimus and even help end a war. But he gets to know them and he thinks they're amazing. It's just hard to be jealous of someone like them, but compared to the island, he thinks that they live in a paradise.

As the 104th and the kids are bonding, Eren kind of does bring it up as a pass in thought, saying that they must be living a life so grand and amazing. And then, to Eren's surprise, they all start busting out laughing.

"Look, buddy, we love our home!" Miko cackled, "But it's not all it's cracked up to be!"

"But there are no titans, no one threatening to destroy you because of who you are-,"

"Even when there is no massive threats to our home like titans, or even Megatron, humanity is it's own worst enemy," Jack explained, "Racism, sexism, climate change, nuclear warfare."

"Defunding of the arts, censorship in media, right-wing ass hats-!"

"Miko, take a breath," Jack interrupted her, earning a scowl from the human Wrecker.

"The displacement of thousand upon thousands of people due to the overall greed of capitalism," Rafael continued, "People are either forced out of their homes or have no choice but to flee, and a select few people have billions of dollars that they don't need."

"After my dad left us, me and my mom were living paycheck to paycheck for a time," Jack explained, "I had to learn to grow up and be responsible so she didn't have to worry about me. I even got a job because I didn't want to ask her for stuff and bother her with things when she already has enough to deal with."

"It's shit like this that kinda makes you think to just let the Decepticons destroy us," Miko proclaimed as she took a sip of her wine, "It's not like humans were making Earth better anyway!"

"We...we had no idea," Armin spoke.

"It's fine," Jack said, "We all just have our own set of problems. Just because one place has more, doesn't mean that they have it all together. Hell, we thought the Autobots were amazing when we first met them, but we met them when they were at war. An advanced civilization like them was at war. No one place is perfect. We're always fighting about something."

Eren has to privately re-examine his own assumptions about them and about Earth after that.

[librarycomic]

Huda F Are You? by Huda Fahmy. Dial, 2021. 9780593324318. http://www.powells.com/book/-9780593324318?partnerid=34778&p_bt

This based-on-real-life bit of fiction follows Huda, a young Muslim woman who chooses to wear a hijab, as she navigates high school and the rest of her life. (Fahmy explains in the opening why she always draws Huda wearing her hijab, even in bed, and that this book isn't meant to represent all Muslims or their experiences.) This is a straightforward high school story with an identity crisis, worried parents, and unrequited crushes that takes place after Huda and her family relocate to a new city. She is not the only hijabi in her high school, but she does face some racism. She also has to deal with people's stereotyping her and other Muslim students. Huda's main problem is that she's not sure who she is (and that she is pretty good at faking interest in whatever anyone is talking about). Luckily she has some good friends around to help, and her family is pretty cool too.

I learned a bit from this book about halaqa (Huda's friend says it's like Bible study, but they talk about Islam and the Quran), wearing abayas, and the stuff Huda has to deal with. Mostly I'm in awe of Fahmy's writing and cartooning; she brought me right into Huda's life using simple layouts and a perfect balance of words and art. This book deserves a home in middle, high school, and public libraries whether or not they have massive graphic novel collections.

[bohemian-nights]

It’s so hypocritical they use N’s age (and the fact that D’s married and has children)to discredit the ship when some of these people would also complain about D not loving Laena despite her being a teenager when they married on the show.I mean there was also racism against L from the D/R fandom as well and the way they wrote their relationship on the show was awful by it it’s only about N when they suddenly get all self righteous. They had no problem with D being a creep towards his barely teenage niece and constantly romanticised him lusting after her and being miserable without her for 10 years(even though it had more to do with him being a Targ supremacist who is all angst because he couldn’t restore the house to its former glory).

Yeah using Nettles age is a cop out if you ship Daemon with Rhaenyra or with Laena. They get self righteous/suddenly develop morals with Nettles cause they don’t like the idea of Daemon “cheating”/leaving his one true love Rhaenyra.

I hate that they changed Daemon’s dynamic with Laena. Cause in the book she seems to be the wife he loves most. Like I keep saying, these fans are fine with these changes cause it leads more credence to their stale 🚢

Lol, they need all the help they can get cause that ship is hanging on a hope and a prayer. If they kept to book cannon they’d probably be more angry at Laena.

Laena is inconsequential to them cause she dies and is “left for” Rhaenyra so they are okay with it as long as their Targaryen queen Rhaenyra 👸🏼 comes first. Nettles completely shifts the scenario they have made up in their minds.

Like read the books people. Daemon and Rhaenyra had an arrangement. He was seeing other women (first Mysaria then Nettles) while Rhaenyra was engorging herself on cakes and losing her mind.

Not trying to be fatphobic or anything, but that’s what she was doing and since they are constantly calling my girl Nettles an unwashed ugly wh*re it’s fair game 🤷🏽‍♀️ Rhaenyra was fine with the situation until he started to fall in love with a woman who she say as beneath her Valyrian prince husband(these fans picked the right one to stan cause they are just like Rhaenyra)

I’m a Daemon stan(and Nettles stan) first and foremost so I don’t really care if he is a massive creep. He’s fictional so I’m prepared to stand by him no matter what he does(Daemon is king lol).

At the end of the day, these people don’t really care if Daemon is a creep either, but they’ll use it as an excuse when it comes to his relationship with Nettles. A relationship that wrecks their delusions into pieces.

[brw]

I've noticed the difference in how Hank acts around Simon too. I've always headcanon'd that Hank feels more at ease and relaxed around Simon. Simon probably reminds Hank of his childhood, and is something of a personal 'what if' for him. Simon, to him, is basically a look at what Hank could've been if he became a lazy, easygoing slacker instead of an emotionally detached scientist, and he knows he would've been happier, even if not as smart. He brings out his long repressed emotions. I think that vulnerability scares Hank on some level, but he does deeply care for him. Hank's devotion to the X-Men is, ultimately, more of a toxic one and keeps him further and further detached from humanity. Simon brings out the inherent human nature inside of him. Although Hank is probably still a bit insecure about finding him attractive, if he admitted it and pursued it, he probably wouldn't be so messed up these days. But Hank is still too stubborn and proud to admit any of it right now.

Oooh, yeah, I think that's a good point. I do think definitely Simon reminds Hank of himself a little, at least initially; while the Avengers were a good place for Hank to be, he did feel like an outcast still; everyone else had established relationships and knew each other really well, and of course aside from Vision he's the only visibly nonhuman. And the Avengers like him, but I think it's fair to say they don't do that much to make him feel as welcomed as they could have done. So when Simon comes back, and has no idea what's going on or who anyone is I think Hank is incredibly sympathetic to him but also, selfishly, is excited to build his own relationship with someone who isn't part of another half, the way Vision and Wanda or Janet and Hank or Steve and Tony were parts of a half.

And like, to be fair, he learns an awful lot about Simon in a very short period of time; Avengers #160 is like a week after he joins the team so Hank learns very shortly that Simon had an abusive situation with his elder brother, that his body has changed in a massive way that he doesn't understand and that's scary, and that he's incredibly uncertain of his own relationship to the rest of the team. There's a lot there that Hank can not only see himself in re: your body changing suddenly and rapidly and not knowing how to adapt to it, and uncertainty of your place. But also he learns very soon on that Simon's had a bit of a hard childhood and to this day we have so little information of what Simon did in his childhood that I think it's very likely he just never really had friends, so obviously Simon needs a friend and I think that, being able to play the part of the savvy, cultured friend helping Simon experience the world he was always too busy studying to look at is really good for Hank. It lets him build his own identity on the Avengers and as a result I think Simon really symbolises that era of his life, when he was happier and more carefree and didn't have to justify to himself having a good time when people were in danger.

And yes absolutely the X-Men are something regressive for Hank that really isn't healthy for him. Because it's not good when you're only a part of a team because you feel indebted to an aspect of your identity you actively resent some days, when your girlfriend breaks up with you for changing and you have to relearn everything with paws instead of hands, etc. The X-Men face so much hatred and bigotry and I think that makes Hank's sense of identity with his own mutanthood more confused, because so much of it is defined by oppression and giant genocidal robots and stuff when you're on that team, vs the Avengers where anti-mutant racism is still a thing but there's a lot of other stuff going on too.

Plus, I think a problem with it too is that a lot of X-Men, by virtue of being a minority group and being leaders of a minority group, have a "the ends justify the means" mentality. Charles will meddle in people's minds when necessary, as will Jean and Emma. Scott was very willing to do questionable acts during the Utopia era to ensure survival. Logan will kill people if it means mutants survive, etc etc. And I don't think any of those people would go as far as current era Hank has but I do think it's not a mistake that around the X-Men his own sense of morality slips. Because when you're facing genocide every two years, it makes sense that you would do anything you could to prevent it. And I think that's what happened to Hank, where he's really internalised the lesson that anything is justifyable if it ensures survival. And he's lost his own sense of what he personally will and won't do, because he's no longer an individual with the X-Men, but part of a collective and willing to do anything to perserve that collective.

Ultimately what Hank really needs is a moral compass. And Simon, who as I said was abused as a child and in turn acted abusive to Vision in the past, has a very strong understanding of what people are capable of but also knows through Eric and himself that people can choose what kind of person they are. And modern day Simon especially is very careful to choose the best option, to not allow himself to be part of a cycle of violence that took his childhood from him, and in turn I do think that's genuinely inspirational to Hank. I keep mentioning it, but Uncanny Avengers v3 #28 is still like, probably the best thing Hank's been in modern days and I'm barely joking.

Like, Hank is aware of his own flaws but he doesn't exactly like to be harshly confronted with them, which is much more what happens in Uncanny X-Men 600, and he reacts in a much more upset way rather than what happens in Uncanny Avengers.

I just feel very strongly the text of these comics really ends up being that the Avengers are in every way a better place for Hank. He's more confident, he doesn't feel the need to try as hard, he's more morally astute, he's a good friend and he is willing to reach out to people and admit his own short comings with them. But on the X-Men, because he's giving so much of himself to them he reacts angrily and defensively when they rightfully call out his flaws. It's just a bad place for him to be in and it really is the Avengers and further more, Simon, where Hank is his best self.

Anyway, that last part, yeah if Hank could just like... idk learn what bisexuality was and come to terms with that part of himself more he'd be better off for it (not least because Marvel is too scared to let a queer character be evil these days it seems Sinister doesn't count). Unfortunately again, the X-Men are just a bad place for Hank so that is never happening there!

[rf-times]

But what's the point of calling out double standards, acknowledging women are held to higher standards than men, if you're going to have less understanding and patience for women as a "feminist" and not give a crap about a female President? Like people will spend all day talking about how "Women can be just as bad as men" is used to excuse women have no power, but then do the same thing to the IDEA of a female president. Like does anyone even remember the black woman Shirley Chisolm who tried to run for president before Hilary Clinton did? Let's not even get into the racism of that. I honestly do think geniune practical liberalism that values logic and empathy is compatabile with feminism. I'm not confident in any Leftist "feminism" based on lefty cool women and Leftist men in general.

It's not about "Oh women can be as evil as men and therefore they could easily be as evil in the role of president." It's not about the individual woman's character or about group of women's characters, both of which are objectively more empathetic, caring and kind than men's due to the nature of patriarchy benefitting male violence. Female presidency has nothing to do with that. This is about whether or not having a woman at the top of a systemically evil, unjust, patriarchal, white supremacist institution will liberate women. And the answer to that is no. Obviously there are plenty of women who should have been elected and who were far far more qualified than their male opponents and party-members. The same principle with female CEOs of fucked up corporations. How does this help actually help women? Of course it's unfair but it's a symptom of a far far worse problem that will not be solved by focusing on allowing a few token women in positions of power.

Also I'm not American. As an Australian I can speak of what happened with our only female prime minister Julia Guillard. She underwent so much horrific misogyny from the media, from her party and political opponents, and was steadfast in the face of that, she gave a fantastic speech called the "Misogyny Speech" which has become a massive part of our cultural landscape. But she also ultimately went along with her (left wing for the record) party's liberal policies, including cutting single mums' welfare payments and saying she was "giving them the dignity of work".

[likeadog]

🔥🔥 horror media with religious themes + art history. (two separate things if you wanna)

ok so for this first one im just gonna assume you mean Christian themes bc i cant get into the absolute clusterfuck that is horror trying to use any other religious symbology (bad)

but. fucking honestly so much of it is pedestrian and boring. frankly. so many things fail to utilize christian horror to its full potential and its just like ouguhghghghghghg spooooooky crucifixion. fuck off get weird with it

that and i dont think enough horror playing on the bizarre american protestant mindset exists.

plus a lot of it inevitably falls into misogyny/racism/xenophobia/etc that the christianity they seek to criticize also does. see me after class

as for art history. hm.

art history in general is just. so much more complicated than most people think but that doesnt mean its not relevant or interesting. but you are also going to have to come to terms with the fact a lot of famous people who made great art were massive pieces of shit ok you have to come to terms with that. however conversely the art history field as a whole has a massive problem with not challenging the impact of these artists on the rest of the world like how picasso's obsessed with african masks may have stunted the study of african cultures for decades after because everyone took away the impression that they were the main visual expression of african artists (and the connected association and obsession with ancient culture without acknowledging the current one-- these people still exist) when thats not the case. whatever. fuck picasso hes not seeing heaven really