#gender non-conforming characters

[dreamtigress]

Me, on the actual International Women's Day: I wrote this awesome story with five strong female characters in it. I should post about it.

My ADHD: You will forget until it is Saturday.

Saturday: You are busy.

My autism on Saturday night, almost midnight again: HEY, POST THE THING.

So, in honor of International Women's Day, but a day late from a busy AuDHD woman, have an awesome story featuring five female characters who are amazing and bad ass and overcoming their various traumas and having adventures.

[kinziethings]

REVIEW: Unbroken (The Pirate and her Princess) by Alli Temple

REVIEW: Unbroken (The Pirate and her Princess) by Allie Temple is #OutNow || #Pirates #FFromance #adventure #AlliTemple

  A pirate’s home is the sea, sailing beyond the horizon with her true love. Aboard the Crimson Siren, Captain Cinder finally has the life she’s always dreamed of. Her freedom is restored, her crew is a trustworthy bunch, and the princess who holds her heart is by her side. But trouble brewing back in Redmere threatens to pull Cinder and Princess Georgina apart before their future can truly…

[hirkyy]

lmao at that post about people drawing femmes tiny &dainty and butches huge and muscular being..imposing hetero imagery on lesbians? thats literally how you draw women. the call is coming from inside the house.

are you. talking about this drawing?

most muscular woman a tumblrina's mind can conceive.

[variousqueerthings]

there’s so many ways that queerness exists in texts, unintentionally and intentionally, coded and uncoded and partially coded and baited and confused and limited and expansive, and then there’s whatever is happening with Hawkeye Pierce, M.D. of the 4077th MASH unit

[kitwasheree]

Happy Birthday to the Character Ever !!!! 1/1

lilia lilia lilililialililialilialilia!!! Lilia vanrouge lililililiali liilia liiililia lilia 🦇🦇🦇

[arson-09]

Im watching a booktuber i like explain cc3 house of whatever and they made a point i was wondering about.

There are no trans, non binary or genderqueer characters in any of sjms books (that im genuinely aware of)

She has a few queer characters yeah but theres no characters that break the gender binary.

which makes sense with how strangely gendered and heteronormative her books are. I think i can and i probably should write an essay on it, im putting that in my notes.

[fromtheseventhhell]

Saying that non-conforming female characters don't face as much misogyny as their "feminine" counterparts is so funny cause literally the misogyny in their treatment is more overt because they aren't staying "in their place" like men think they should. The disdain for women + misogynistic societal ideals are so much more blatant in male characters interacting with these women. Countless times they are, in essence, told they need to sit down, shut up, and know their place but somehow that translates into them having "masculine privilege". I can only assume that people with this take haven't actually read the books and only get their information from second-hand sources.

[monoukotori]

There has been a lot of talk about how Andromeda Shun defies gender roles by being a soft kind man who hates fighting, but I think we should also talk how Saga, the big bad of the sanctuary arc, also defies gender expectations

He's the most powerful saint of sanctuary, he's a ruthless killer who murdered a lot of people, including the man who raised him and his best friend,pretended to be the Pope for 13 years and tried to assassinate a bunch of teenagers that opposed him

He is also a pretty bishounen man that has the most fanservice scenes in the entire anime, after being unmasked cried for like, 40 percent of his screentime and immediately submitted to Athena after losing.

He's a manly man who is also sensitive and emotionally fragile, who embodies the dichotomy of masculinity and feminity in the most extreme ways with his double personality

Not to mention the fact that before Seiya he effectively murdered everyone who saw him without his mask as if he was a female saint.

[sourgecko]

So I was thinking about the lack of female animal characters in media that don't look conventionally and stereotypically feminine (e.g., without eyelashes or conventionally feminine accessories), and how Bluey was pretty much the main example of a female character I could think of that doesn't fall under those norms.

So, I decided to make a Google Doc (link here) compiling all the fictional animals in TV shows, movies, and games, that look completely androgynous/gender non-conforming in appearance. It's uh.. Not a very long list so far, but have a look at it if this is a topic that interests you and let me know if you can think of any other characters you'd like to be added!

[groovinrightalong]

Trans Mike Wheeler is something so personal actually…

[moreclaypigeons]

No like seriously ARE we ready to talk about the misogyny in fandom spaces

[qcomicsy]

Not to be gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss, fleabag, black swan on main but I feel like we should explore more Wade Wilson femininity not only by his sexuality or his softness or his delicacy as Wade and Deadpool, but also his rage.

I'm saying that because he seems the exactly type of person who would hear a "You're acting crazy!" stop, turn to the person and say "I'll show you crazy" before setting fire in their clothes.

Give Wade the so called feminine rage he earned that shit.

[thegyusorcerer]

just watched Nimona and I can absolutely confirm it has cured my depressive episode 😭

[ironborealis]

So this post appeared on my feed because I was dumb and said I was interested in things tagged "Severus Snape" because I forget how things work sometimes.

I gave them a long response but I think it's a banger so I've cleaned it up to share.

To preface, I'll say that I was still in school when the books were starting to come out, and so I was in school during the period the books are set. I wasn't in the UK and can't speak to specifics there, but my own.

Your question feels really disingenuous when you tag it #james potter supremacy but I am a fool and going to answer you honestly anyway.

I liked Snape the moment it was revealed in the first book that he wasn't the villain -- because it showed him as someone who gave no fucks about how others saw him. I had been violently bullied for years at that point, but was told that I needed to stop letting it hurt me or to stop acting in ways to invite the abuse. All I internalized was that it was my fault and I needed to change myself so that they'd like me. So meeting a character who just stopped giving a fuck about other people's opinions was fascinating.

The text doesn't, I think, intend for you to read Snape's behavior as incredibly abusive. A lot of his behavior to the students wouldn't have been seen as abnormal when I was in school. Unkind but within tolerance. He was a prick and the assumption with teachers like that was that A) don't take it personally B) If you can't do A then stay off their radar and count the minutes until class is over. I'm hoping that the sudden uproar about how abusive Snape is now is a sign that school culture has changed. Because you're right, it's awful, and shouldn't happen. But that's now, and not then. Then it was acceptable if not exactly encouraged behavior.

For me, Snape's teaching style would have been within normal limits and at least it wasn't false advertising. I saw popular "kind" teachers bully disabled students, throw coffee mugs, and choke slam 9 year olds. Those teachers were never punished. I preferred the hard asses who didn't pretend, but would restrain themselves to only demoralizing you with words. They never went half so far as those much beloved teachers. These were in schools that had long banned corporal punishment by teachers, by the way.

Plus, Snape's bullying is written in such a way that is so over the top and dramatic it's hard for me to believe that there's any real intent as he never follows through with most of his threats. He's amusing himself, which is fucked up, yes, but so is his situation being forced to teach children (a job he hates) by daylight and fighting a war as a spy by moonlight (a job he also hates).

When book 5 revealed his own history of being bullied the kinship I felt for him just kinda clicked. Game knew game, even if I didn't know it then.

What impressed me about Snape is that he made a terrible decision of joining the DE, he knows it, he regrets it, and most importantly he does something about it. He sabotages them and when he can't do that he tries to reduce harm as much as possible.

He joins a side lead by people who are responsible for his own traumas, who are unrepentant about their roles in it but still expect him to get over it. Snape isn't interested in pretending everything is fine with his allies when everything isn't fine and that's such a challenging and brave stance to take.

Because if I were in his shoes, my first instinct would be to swallow all my anger and stuff it in well inside me and pretend it doesn't exist so that I could be seen as agreeable and the bigger person. I know I'm not alone in that. However, that instinct has caused me so much damage that I will spend the rest of my life fighting that instinct tooth and nail.m, because what it means is that you are minimizing yourself and your safety in order to make other people comfortable.

Snape might have the right idea (but poor execution) when it comes to some people, but he falters when it comes to Lily. I was so disappointed with the reveal that Lily was his primary motivation, even if it's grown on me. He's so damned loyal to someone who wasn't even a great friend to him by the end. Lily smiles before she intercedes in SWM, which to me signaled that the whole scene was just a way for James to pull Lily's metaphorical pigtail (Snape) in their courtship and if I were the pigtail I'd be pissed too. It doesn't justify but it adds context for why he might want to hurt her then.

And Snape spends the rest of his life regretting his moments of weakness and giving his life to prevent Voldemort from winning, for a friend who failed him pretty spectacularly.

Most people don't do that -- they regret and then they try to get on with their lives. They don't want to talk about it. We're STILL finding guards from WWII concentration camps hiding out in suburbs after all. Snape doesn't choose that and that's brave as hell.

Snape's "redemption" is a hot debate, but I don't know that redemption is even his goal. He's just trying to do what's right. If he were really searching for redemption then certainly I think he'd have sought a more friendly relationship with Harry, if only on the side.

Which brings me back to how can you claim "James Potter Supremacy" when he's only seen in SWM, where he's a cruel bully to someone minding their own business (SWM takes place after the Shack per canon), and we only have the testimony of Sirius and Remus, a decade after his death, to say that he "got better" -- which meant not publicly tormenting Snape, but doing it in private. We never get to see this better version of James.

Sirius and Remus are highly motivated to put James in the best light possible to his orphaned son, which is natural, but it doesn't make it gospel truth. I think he may have become a better person with time, because that typically happens, and certainly he had the capacity for great kindness (befriending Remus) which makes his decisions to be so cruel even more painful. But he died and we never get to see any of him in canon except him being a complete asshole.

So why would you question how people can like Snape when there is so much more canonical evidence that Snape was a good person with serious faults than there is for James being anything other than a school bully who died young?

[yume-fanfare]

part of my personal problem w femstars is that. i know the appeal of it is basically just pretty girls. unfortunately i need everything to add up and some characters' stories simply would not make sense if they were cute cis girls

[kame56u]

happy birthday izou!