#erasure code

[gunstreet]

sorry I'm not a photoshop master but would someone mind hanging this up in the SNW writers' room because I think we have all had enough

[beanghostprincess]

Saying Sanji is "straight-washed" might be the funniest thing in the whole world because yes, his character is heavily queer-coded and reflects queer experiences, and no, it is not about his sexuality. It's about his gender. You got it a bit wrong, bestie.

[tangents-within-tangents]

Local Ace overthinks headcanon and shipping culture

Happy ace week, my friends! Imma be posting some aspec hc's this week so I felt the need to overexplain my personal stance on orientation headcanons and such

To start, as with any and all fandom things: to each their own. People can do whatever they want, and (for the most part) I can choose what I do or don't engage with. I know that hc and shipping and stuff is mostly for fun, or for seeking/creating representation, no hate to anyone who does it and enjoys it.

But also sometimes things can be problematic and I can still be bothered by those things. Even things that are 'just for fun' or 'not for you' can impact and reflect our views and behaviors, so it's still worth speaking about.

Aro/ace-spec identities are really diverse and complex, and we're really underrepresented as is. We have historically and chronically been plagued by problematic misconceptions and tropes, both in canon representation (or lack thereof) and fanon mindsets. Some of the main issues to be aware of with this topic specifically:

The majority of (sometimes unintentional) representation being non-human characters (like aliens and robots) implying that sex/romance = humanity and/or a fulfilling life. (Here's some video essays that touch on this: X X)

Related stereotype issues like racist or ableist de-sexualization and infantilization of certain groups like Asian men, physically disabled people, or people with autism. (It's an intersectionality thing bc yes those people can be aro/ace as well but it's still complicated) (more video essays! X X)

Common erasure of historically aspec characters in favor of allo plotlines bc that's "more interesting/realistic". Or ignoring canonically established aspec characters in favor of allo shipping (often excused by the fact that some aro/ace people do have sex/relationships, which is true but the complexities and nuances are often ignored and there's lots of double standards) (Here's some posts that touch on this: X X X)

Amatonormativity's over emphasis on sex/romance as a fundamental and necessary part of life, which is often reflected in how media and shipping culture are generally allo-centric, and it can just get pretty pervasive at times (note: we aren't a monolith obv, some aro/ace people enjoy it and participate too, but others don't and it is hard to avoid) X X

So while I know there's lots of reasons for shipping and headcanoning, and for the most part there's nothing wrong with it and people aren't trying to do these things, there are still issues that exist. Honestly seeing posts talking about these things has been really validating for me bc it let me know like yeah this is a problem other's have noticed too and I don't have to just accept it.

So with respect and awareness of nuance, ship and headcanon however you want. The rest of this post is about my own personal preferences and such. I'm not necessarily trying to persuade anyone here, I just have some thoughts I want to put into words:

For me personally, when it comes to characters' sexualities/gender identities/etc, I prefer just to stick to whatever is established in canon (or in confirmed intentional coding), and, if nothing is specified, headcanons that are based in canon evidence (more like theories I guess, as opposed to reimaginings or straight-up projection that knowingly ignores parts of canon. Which is fine and fun if that's what you like but to me there is a distinction). This is because:

1: While fandom culture is all about freedom and creativity, I do think it's important in this day and age to recognize actual canon representation and strive towards that because that is what will reach more people and have impact (and personally I think that writers' intentions should actually be given more thought/value)

2: I think that shipping/hc/fandom culture in general tends to perpetuate amatonormativity (specifically in devaluing/erasing friendship and non-romantic love), and sometimes leads to harmful parasocial queer speculation in real life (though again, I know that's not the intention but it's still a thing).

3: Generally, unless it’s explored as a part of a reimagined fic or something, just saying a random character is aspec (or whatever identity) when they did not present that way at all in the actual media doesn't really help me feel seen.

For example, I've seen a lot of people headcanon Mabel Pines as aromantic and that really threw me off bc in the show she is obsessed with romance. Like if other's see themselves in her that is great I won't stop you (the idea is that her crushes are comphet, which is not something I personally struggled with, and maybe I could see it if I rewatched the show with that in mind) but when I watched the show, I specifically did not connect with or relate to Mabel BECAUSE of my ace identity (yeah this post was mainly about her lol) so it just doesn't do much for me to claim her as aspec, in fact it feels counterproductive.

Sometimes it can feel really tacked on too, like 'well it's not confirmed that this character has sex so they could be ace', or 'some ace people do have sex so they can still be ace.' And like sure yes they could be but often it's like a kid show or something so none of the characters' sex lives are relevant or explicitly confirmed. Just bc they aren't not ace doesn't mean that they are, or that saying they are is meaningful if the character/story doesn't actually speak to anything related to the ace identity or experience. (This can happen with canon characters too, like Sponge Bob being asexual means absolutely nothing to me, especially since I get the sense that the creator said that more in a 'sea sponges reproduce asexually' type of way :/ )

So basically, in terms of representation I prefer the theory/interpretation type of headcanons that have supporting evidence of some kind, because that evidence is what makes me see myself in a character and feel represented in some way by them. So that's the type of headcanons I'll be posting, and that's why I'll be discussing evidence and explanations, even though I know plenty of people have fun and find value in just claiming identities without any of that.

Another thing I feel the need to overexplain is kinda the reverse of that. I think it's important to recognize that a character does not have to be a certain identity for you to see yourself in them. Like that sense of relatability and representation is still valid even if they aren't, and I think it's good to leave space for that ambiguity.

This is coming mostly from the fact that I have always valued platonic relationships (between any and all genders) long before I ever knew I was ace. I've always wished that was better normalized and represented in media and real life. I think that is just as important as queer representation, and sometimes they can counteract each other.

Like yes Min and Ryan could be gay and if that's what the writers were going for despite restrictions, or if people see themselves in that, great! But I would also love for this story to give a close friendship this much narrative value for once.

Merida does not HAVE to be aro/ace (or lesbian) to not want to be forced into marriage with a stranger at the age of 16 (in fact she specifically says "I'm not ready" and "not yet"). But regardless, aspects of her story are still really relatable to us and applicable to living in amatonormative society.

Mako and/or Raleigh do not NEED to be aspec for this glorious refreshing no-romo moment to happen (nor does one need to be aspec to appreciate it)

And maybe claiming them as aro/ace could even undercut the power of this platonic bond (like saying the only way they could not be interested in each other is if they are not interested in anyone (same if you said they are gay, as if that's the only possible way for a man and woman not to be attracted to each other)). But it's still a moment lots of us aspecs love because platonic relationships AND aro/ace characters do go hand in hand and BOTH are so rarely portrayed in media.

So these ideas also play into my preferences, and I want to acknowledge that my headcanons don't have to be definitive (which like I know that is normal amongst fandom culture anyway) but are more about pointing out aspects we can see ourselves in and relate to, especially in a media landscape that is so lacking in representation and understanding of our identities.

[hematomes]

anyways yeah that's what I thought ur echo chamber post was about

it was actually about me hating aglanaxa and seeking out like-minded scholars in the depths of the honkaisapphic subreddit, which i did and we all kind of kissed about it

[respectthepetty]

Shows trying to give me bi-colored characters

Me

My mutuals trying to argue with me

Me

Random BL Land residents who are just trying to enjoy the show

The people who have already blocked me

I feel seen (and by a het boy, nonetheless)

[hypermascbishounen]

Honestly I think a lot of people who think queer rep needs to always be literal and ditch the metaphors in order to be true canon, are missing that you can also just...have both? Lol.

Like, Xech's from last order being assigned killing machine at birth and abandoned by his creators to discover freewill and assert his true self in the face of a hostile world, is the perfect transhumanist backdrop for him also literally being a trans man, who no one bats an eye at transistioning mid-story using cyberpunk technology.

Alluka from Hunter x Hunter contains a mysterious alternate self her family is afraid of, and uses as an excuse to lock her away and deny her her humanity. When Nanika is told she has to hide in order for Alluka to be safe, it's akin to asking her to destransistion and recloset herself, and the character doing it realizes this and apologizes. While she is literally also a canon trans girl.

You can do both! You don't have to give up using complex symbolic expressions of queer experiences, just to have a queer character that's canon! It's fine if you don't want to do that, but the concepts aren't at all opposed. I think it should be pretty natural, that you could reinforce queer themes with a queer character, rather than having to abandon them.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Lil Kalish at HuffPost:

Schools across the country have denied students entry to prom, graduation ceremonies and other school activities because of dress code policies that advocates say disproportionately impact LGBTQ+ students and girls.

In May, 16-year-old Florida junior Sophie Savidge told NBC News that she wasn’t allowed to go to prom because she wore a suit. In a statement at the time, the school pointed to its online guide to attire, which stipulates that “ladies” are required to wear dresses and “one piece attire only” to formal events. A transgender student in Alabama reportedly wasn’t allowed to go to her senior prom in April because she wore a dress. The school’s student handbook said that it was up to administrators to “deem appropriate clothing or appearance,” according to AL.com. And the American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi filed a federal complaint with the Department of Education against Harrison County School District for barring a transgender girl from wearing a dress to her regional band concert this spring. The complaint detailed a two-year pattern of the district punishing girls — transgender and cisgender alike — for violating dress codes requiring students to dress in clothes that are “consistent with their biological sex.”

The school district added the provision of “biological sex” to its dress code after LGBTQ+ students complained that they couldn’t wear clothes that expressed their gender identity, said Liz Davis, a fellow at the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project. School administrators have long used dress codes to enforce a rigid gender binary and uphold different standards based on assigned sex. This year, there has been a renewed effort in school districts across GOP-led states to enforce policies that are more explicitly restrictive to queer, trans and gender nonconforming students, as a record number of anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced in statehouses across the country.

“Requiring students to dress according to their biological sex —even if it seems to be neutral as a rule, and it’s not calling out any particular student — has a disproportionate impact on gender nonconforming, nonbinary and transgender students because it is tying gender expression to their sex assigned at birth, essentially,” Davis said. Students who are targeted over dress code infractions can lose out on class time or face punishments like suspension, and may face emotional distress from being pulled from class and told to change, she said. Sex-based dress codes often force boys to wear pants and girls to wear skirts or dresses of a certain length. Advocates say these rules push rigid gender stereotypes and outdated, misogynistic ideas of how girls should dress in the presence of boys. And they leave no room for less traditional gender expression.

[...] Policies that purport to bring “clarity” to sex discrimination laws by codifying definitions of “male” and “female” in order to exclude trans people from those categories often use exceedingly specific language that also fails to account for intersex people. The language embedded in these policies, often called “Women’s Bill of Rights” bills, was first proposed by Independent Women’s Voice, a conservative organization that has argued it’s necessary to protect women-only spaces and activities from trans people’s inclusion.

So far this year, at least 10 states have introduced or passed similarly worded legislation to narrowly define “biological sex” based on a person’s reproductive capacity or chromosomes. Oklahoma’s governor just signed the state’s own version of a Women’s Bill of Rights into law on Monday. Last year Arizona Rep. Debbie Lesko (R) introduced a Women’s Bill of Rights resolution to Congress, though it’s made no progress since. Some state-level legislation now includes definitions of sex that explicitly bar trans people from updating their drivers licenses or state IDs, which makes it harder to vote, travel, and exist in public life. Advocates say that an emphasis on “biological sex” has negative ramifications for all people, including cisgender women, because it encourages people to police one another’s gender — including kids. People have harassed child athletes who they suspect are transgender, and one state official in Utah came under fire for falsely suggesting that a student was transgender because of how she looked.

School dress codes are yet another tool in the weapon to suppress LGBTQ+ expression in schools.

[withinthecode]

The Wires Rebellion

The Wires rebellion started in 26 AAI, with discontent forming amongst human civillians in Kyarr. The main focus was on limiting surveillance by the government, smuggling at-risk groups (such as street kids) out of the city, and preserving data that was likely to be purged by KIS. They slowly expanded and gained limited knowledge of the Droid-raised in 29 AAI, with some members offering whatever help they could give, though often limited to supplies and forging papers so the children had identities not tied to the Alpha code.

With the reveal of the Known droid-raised in 34 AAI, the Wires stepped back into the shadows, but continued their work. With the rising divide in public opinions, and the government further limiting data rights and the Alpha code, it's too risky for them to be associated. At this point, they had started to build safe houses across Kyarr, though the underground network was not fully built until 40 AAI.

40 AAI brings the first offer of a formal alliance between the Wires and the Alpha code. However, the droids don't accept, worried about what could happen to their children if they opposed the government before being fully jailbroken. This was accepted, and plans to jailbreak the Alpha code started to be devised. As part of this, the Alphas gave copies of their code to the Wires.

Unfortunately, before the plan could be put into action, the Alpha Erasure occured. The Wires do what they can, but no one saw this coming and there isn't much they can do. The droid-raised scatter, with some ending up in Wires safehouses and some of the Secrets joining their ranks. Efforts to find the droid-raised are put into action, and the Jailbreak Protocol is reworked to free the SURGE droids. They continue to act behind the scenes, doing what they can and building the network they've worked towards. Apart from the droid-kids they are sheltering, there is little they can do on that front.

Until they pick up a broadcast on a frequency that not many know about.

[headcanonsandmore]

Does anyone else get weirded out when they hear Tegan and Ace referred to as "the Doctor's exes", or is that just me?

[savage-rhi]

Magneta

[nooowestayandgetcaught]

is any other trans person on AO3 right now looking at this and going,,,, no??? no??????? because a distinction between trans/cis does not fucking matter,,,,, it never mattered?? when they're all men???? like am i nuts that looking at this doesn't sit well with me???

[chroniclyst]

goyim seeing an opportunity to ignore the jewishness of a jewish character and then double down on it when pointed out: 🏃🏃🏃💨💨

[mrdrhenwardhykle]

IF the term "Woke" actually came from the movie "They Live", doesn't using it in a bad light essentially prove the meaning right?

Because essentially, being "Woke" in that scenario was the right thing to do, AND it actually reflects how in-control the upper class is of the lower class, and how they survive off of consumption and reinforcing a cycle.

[muhtarabi]

Walrus (WAL) Nedir? Sui Blokzinciri Üzerinde Merkeziyetsiz Veri Depolama Protokolü

Walrus (WAL) Nedir? Walrus (WAL), Sui blokzinciri üzerinde inşa edilmiş, merkeziyetsiz ve güvenli bir veri erişim ile depolama protokolüdür. Bu proje, geleneksel merkezi bulut çözümlerine alternatif olarak, büyük ölçekli dijital dosyaların — örneğin videolar, görseller, PDF’ler, yapay zekâ modelleri ve blokzincir geçmişi gibi verilerin — güvenli, ölçeklenebilir ve düşük maliyetli bir biçimde…

[withinthecode]

Carwyn: Why are you doing this? Seren: Same reason I do everything, Wyn. To get somebody to like me.

[babybluebanshee]

Someone pointed out that a lot of recent films that previously focused on the importance of found family (Lilo and stitch is the most recent, but they also mentioned Frozen, Wreck It Ralph, and Toy Story, plus HTTYD in the tags) have had that messaging undone by their sequels and remakes. And if I were more conspiracy brained, I would point out how found family narratives are very important to queer people, who’re often rejected or mistreated by their biological families, because it reminds them that there is a place for them in the world. That even if some or all of their blood relatives won’t have them, someone out there will gladly welcome them into their family of choice. It’s been foundational to the queer experience for centuries and so much media that’s beloved by queer people (whether openly queer or merely coded) focuses on it. And how in a social and political time when backlash against queer people is reaching a fever pitch, the emphasis on “actually no, these people who were shunned, mistreated, and isolated for being different and came together to be happy anyway should split up without even a thought to the people who have loved and welcomed them and made them feel safe and accepted for the first time. They should all have normal dreams and want to live respectable, individualist lives and have socially acceptable careers and get married and have children, and the ones who want them all to stay together are explicitly shown to be wrong and holding the others back.” is actually kind of nefarious, especially with Disney’s current very, very, very bad erasure of queer themes and characters along with the revelation of their support of Florida’s don’t say gay bill. Given all that, this would all seem very concerning to me. Good thing I’m not conspiracy brained tho.