#hetalia is a anime about gay countries for those who dont know it

[mango-harvest]

its so frustrating when you start writing again after like a couple of months of break and when you wake up the next day you read your fic and ueghhg... its so BAD i can do so much better i promise give me another chance to prove myself.....

[aph-poland]

It may make you angry, but I'm from Poland and I can't stand the fluffy-pinky-gay image of my country in Hetalia fandom. We're one of the most traditionalist country in the EU, a man would be probably beaten if he went outside in a fucking skirt. It sounds still ridiculous for me that two people of the same gender can marry, because it's illegal here.

Wow um, that doesn’t really make me angry i guess just?? a little taken off guard by this weirdly hostile ask out of nowhere lol. But here’s what I have to say:

I’m not sure how long you’ve been familiar with my blog or if u just decided to yell at a hetalian today and chose me at random, but I wouldn’t really classify myself as a fan of the “fluffy-pinky-gay image” of APH Poland either tbh. It actually makes me really upset when people just want to stereotype him as such based on the image that the fandom has dubbed for him, and instead overlook all of his history, struggles, triumphs, culture, and basically everything “Polish” about him. If you knew me you’d know I’m actually one of the most angry and disappointed people in the fandom at this because it constantly infuriates me with the way he gets categorized simply by the way hima drew him.

Idk there is so much to address in this ask I’m struggling to try and write this as eloquently as possible but forgive me i’m doing this at work so i may sound a lil jumbled. The deal is, it’s actually pretty problematic when people want to erase all that Feliks is and represents and just paint him up as “the gay character” or “transv****te cross-dresser” simply because he wore a skirt in a strip that made him fit that stereotype. There is so much potential to his character as far as depth and exploration goes that is often horribly skewed or ignored by other hetalians in favor of just reducing him down to “fabulous valley girl.” And to be quite honest its pretty ooc, but thats more of a different topic for another time.

Don’t get me wrong, I have a few qualms with hima myself and some of the problematic content that he’s decided to include in hetalia, but if you pay attention to Canon Feliks vs Fanon Feliks, you’ll notice alot of the “fluffy-pinky-gay image” has been forced onto him by young (lowkey homophobic) fans. The way Feliks acts in canon (if you take away the over-use of the “valley girl accent” that the translator chose to assign to him to match w/e Japanese dialect hima was trying to give him) you could actually interpret many things differently. By doing so, it’s much easier to see how strong, tough, charismatic, loyal, trusting, and deep he actually is. You see his strengths, his faults, his mistakes, his victories, his growth as a character, nation, and person over the years. You can see moments of happiness, sorrow, silliness, seriousness, moments of weakness, moments of power, moments of worry, moments of confidence, love, hate, regret, revenge, but above all...perseverance. So trust me, it makes me just as confused and angry when people want to ignore what a diverse -if not somewhat ironic/conflicting- character he is and instead change him around to fit what they want to see him as. I wish he was treated with more respect.

However

I understand how traditional the “real’ Poland is, believe me. I’ve been in this fandom for many years and you’re not the first “””real polish person”” I’ve seen get angry over aph poland. You’re not alone.

The thing about hetalia though, is that it is just an anime. All told through the views and thoughts of a japanese man. The story is intended to be a light comedy making fun of nationality stereotypes while simultaneously celebrating the history, culture, and people of each said nation. The intention, as I’ve also taken it (or choose to take it anyway), is to take the setup for these lovable, flawed characters, and kind of???? have fun with them per say...

People are free to interpret things, events, practices, and the characters themselves how they choose (generally speaking anyways). I think there’s nothing wrong with that as long as it’s respectful and not gross in anyway (again, another topic). So therefore, there’s nothing wrong with headcanoning Feliks as being gay. I understand how “the real poland” is set up and what their laws are (though I don’t claim to be an expert or openly discuss them as I am not polish nor do i live there, so i feel that is not my place) but there are so many other things to take into consideration before you come off as homophobic yourself.

One thing to consider, is how the same thing could be said for well over half the nations. To claim that a hetalia character “can’t be gay” because of politicians and a government party’s standpoint is pointless and irrelavent tbh. I’ve always felt it?? weird to try and tie a nation down to a specific time period or law when they’ve been around for literally centuries, and have witnessed and believed in all different type of social norms and morals and laws that evolve and change as time progresses. Its actually pretty closed-minded to expect thousand year old nations to buy into every single detail of present-day customs and viewpoints. Many of the more conservative viewpoints of many nations around the world are relatively new ideas as far as strict practice goes in comparison to the personified character themselves. Something that’s been an enforced idea for the last 50 years or so could just feel like a month or two to an immortal being lmao. But again, I believe most of it is up to interpretation.

I don’t want to speak for the lgbt in poland, or any polish lgbt throughout history as i don’t feel i have the right or enough adequate knowledge to do so, but a hetalia nation is supposed to be sympathetic to and feel the struggles and pain and happiness and glory of all their citizens. Regardless of what the political standpoint of the country is on (I personally believe nations choose not to align themselves with political parties in general as a conflict of interest would ensue) hima has stated time and again that the nations also have the ability to be their own person, and have their own views and standpoints on things that might not match the “majority” of the current political climate (ex. Germany himself was shown to be annoyed with and hated dealing with Adolf Hitler). So it’s not really fair to pretend like a nation has never-looked-at-the-same-gender allllll throughout history just like it’s silly to presume that all people are StraightTM until proven otherwise. 

Canon APH Poland, Feliks Łukasiewicz, the man who likes pink, the man who doesn’t care about gender norms or what kind of fabric he puts on his body because he’s old and has obtained a certain level of nation wisdom enough to know that not only is gender a construct and there’s nothing shameful about “””feminine clothing”””” (even though clothes are just pieces of fabric meant to cover your body and dont have genders lol), but has also seen all kinds or fashion and different types of clothing all throughout history and has worn frilly neck ties, jewelry, heels, makeup, and capes back when those were once considered to be “”masculine”” at that time period as well and remembers how fucking good he used to look in that shit and after all he’s been through knows that he has the right to rock w/e the fuck he wants, the man who historically, legally, culturally, and personally married to another man, the man who still remembers his childhood before he even heard of Christianity, the man who had one of the most tolerant and flourishing commonwealths in history, the man who has such strong ties to the romantic period and who, as a nation, is much more complicated than mortal humans could ever hope to understand........is absolutely wonderful.

Now I’m sorry that lgbt representation and rights is lacking in Poland at the moment, as it is all over the world. Truly I am, and it makes me upset. I don’t know if you share those same homophobic and hateful views (your tone implies that you do), but the fight and struggle of the lgbt people is far to complicated and powerful to use as a playing chip on a silly Japanese cartoon, and i think basing a headcanon off of prejudice and hate like that is disrespectful to the nation, and to bringing that into a cartoon is disrespectful to the lgbt struggle as well and belittles it all tbh. But as i said before, that topic is best left for another day.

I’m sorry you felt so insulted by a cartoon character to come to my inbox about it, as if i have any control of what this fandom does to him, but I try to just look past all the forced, fanon garbage to see feliks for what he really is. A strong, tough, talented, complicated, fearless, resilient, yet still endlessly sarcastic, funny, mischievous person.

Do you not think that is a good tribute to the Polish people?