#i did my best with this knowing we don't have that many sources abt the bl.ck triangle and that my sources typically arent in english lol

[monstersinthecosmos]

can i ask what you mean re: disliking how the amc show deals with SA? (zero judgement ftr i just love hearing opinions about this show from other simple italian perv enjoyers. btw you're one of my favorite fic authors ever ever & i think abt gallows bird daily 🙈)

Obviously since you mentioned Gallows Bird in this very ask (thank you btw dskjglads I’m blushing) I’m not going to sit here and say people should never write about rape!!!!!!!!!!!  And I’ve been soul searching and talking this out with a friend today to make sure I’m not just being a hater and that I’m not having cognitive dissonance over the difference between writing porn (intentionally, intended as porn, labeled as porn) vs lazily throwing sexual assault at female characters for “character development”.

(putting this under a cut bc I'm not trying to hate on youse guys's show!!)

It's not that we should never talk about it, or never write about it, but I think it’s like any other storytelling where like, the framework and intention inside the text matters, and criticizing if it landed the way the creator intended is worth discussing. So like, I’m a fan of noncon smut fic, I won’t deny that. I also approach it in a context where I know I’m consuming smut, and it was intended as smut, and it belongs in its own lane. And I think, personally, I enjoy fics (which by nature are anarchistic and transformative) because they tend to be a commentary either on our culture or on the canon source material. Even when fanfics are PWPs that don’t go out of their way to talk about character arcs or make profound commentary on the canon, fanfic EXISTS as a commentary on canon in the first place, so it’s there by default.

So with AMC there’s a few things that really bother me about how they wrote Claudia in S1, and full disclosure I haven’t watched S2 yet, so take this with a grain of salt.

I don’t think it’s cool when a production team of mostly cishet men think that the only way to develop a female character is to have her raped. It’s lazy and it’s hurtful to the audience, and in this particular show it was not handled with sensitivity to make the story worth it. Like, what was the weight of the scene vs what it told us, and what was the payoff? Did the show earn this? (I personally don’t think it did.)

RJ himself said it was to “toughen her up” and that’s just, absolutely fucking nauseating to me, especially when it’s stamped with so many hallmarks of How Not to Write Rape. For example, the fact that they use it to tell us about LOUIS. It’s about LOUIS. It’s not about Claudia at all; we see her assault and the net result is seeing how it affects the MEN in her life. And even using her diary as a framing device for these moments, to tell it from her own words the best they can, it’s still about Louis. The pages being ripped out (in S1, idk how this lands in S2) are about protecting Louis. Claudia didn't remove the pages to protect herself, as far as we know--the men in her life removed them to protect Louis. Fridging a female character for the sake of developing the mens feelings is lazy and obnoxious, and in this story in particular it felt extremely unnecessary to the plot, and adding it at all just came across as gratuitous to me.

(Also, I can tell that this show is like, an exercise in slow burning, but, I just think the bar is really fucking high if they make this all mean something smarter but made everyone sit through this and wait 1.5+ years to get around to tucking it in lol. And like, idk what the pages could possibly say/how they will present it that will change my opinion, but RJ's comments can't be unheard so I'm not sure it matters and the trust simply isn't here, for me. Personally I don't have the patience to wait years for a show to close a loop like this but maybe you're more patient than me.)

I don’t want to get into a whole side essay about how gross I find the Claudia writing in general, but like, as a TLDR the way they aged her up only to reduce her to sex is just so fucking gross to me, and not like in a IT’S HORROR, IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE GROSS way, but in a This Is Kinda Fucking Sexist way. Especially with the sexist comments RJ has made about Anne Rice herself, while piggybacking her IP to make his show. But like, there were OTHER things about Claudia already. They already told us she came from an abusive background. She did not need to be raped for her to come home and recognize the abuse between her parents. Any number of horrific things could’ve happened to her out in the world, but the only way this team knows how to traumatize a girl is to have her raped.

And again I didn’t watch S2 yet so like, I’m not entirely sure how it shakes out, correct me if I’m wrong, but we find out now that it was prolonged and worse than what S1 showed us?

Like, why.

Who does the torture porn serve. We already got it, it was already horrific. We already got it. You’re overselling lol.

Claudia is already tough. She survived her dismal mortal life, she survived Lestat. She was brave enough to wander into the world, not just as a teen, but as a Black girl! She was already independent! In the book, she was the driving force behind helping Louis escape Lestat, and she was pulling the strings in getting them to Europe. The show has that material to pull from. We can see that she’s strong already. We don’t need more rape to communicate it. It’s lazy and gross. Especially when, in the same episode, they are able to traumatize Louis with horrific violence. The show knew how to use violence, mind gift manipulation, race and age and power dynamics in ways that did not involve rape, but still chose to have Claudia raped.

I don’t have an issue with stories talking about sexual assault but I think like, especially after Game of Thrones, we’ve had like, 10 years of media criticism mapping out how to write sexual assault successfully or respectfully, we’ve had endless commentary about how we can find other ways to traumatize women that do not rely on sexual assault, we’ve had endless commentary about how stories about sexual assault would be more effective if they were about the victim and not ultimately about the men in the story.  Like, enough of this already.

So, I’ll be curious to see how the show handles Armand’s sexual assault history, and if we see the writing handled differently because he’s a man, or because we have him directly on screen to tell us about it. This might reveal if this is a like, “only tool in the toolbox is rape” situation or a “women exist in fiction to be raped” situation. But if Lestat suffered at the hands of Magnus without being raped and Louis suffered at the hands of Lestat without being raped*, I have to ask why it was okay to have Claudia raped, why that was the thing they came up with, and while they can’t backpedal and fix the way RJ spoke about it during S1, they have an opportunity to be more intentional with the way they write it for Armand.

(*I do want to add that S1E5 being bookended by blood drinking was a hint that Lestat drinking from Louis during their fight was also rape, contrasted by the way Louis drinks from Armand in the beginning as ~ lovemaking ~; imo that could've been a more tasteful way to handle it in this universe specifically, when that’s the sex analog in the books. So like, yes in some ways Louis was raped by Lestat in this episode, but that also shows we respect Louis enough to have it symbolic vs Claudia’s being literal.)

But I just have a real bad feeling, the way they made Lestat WAY WORSE I just imagine they’ll do the same to Marius. And it’s sort of ironic that the show in a lot of ways exists in conversation with the book canon, like, the racial commentary feels at times like a commentary on the books’ racism, and I wonder what the decision making process was when they were picking which themes to correct, or comment on. Because a LOT of people criticize themes of rape and abuse in VC, and in some ways the show making it more overt feels like they’re putting a huge spotlight on it to acknowledge it properly, and in other ways, having Claudia raped feels like it’s going down the same path of insensitive, shallow writing.

And also, idk where I’m supposed to tuck this thought lol, but as an addendum I can’t not mention that I think it’s really fucked up that they’ve talked nonstop about how much they respect AR and the canon and yet had the analog character of her daughter raped. Like, in S1 they burn the tapes, in S2 they mock the plotlines as being a soap opera, and they have her daughter raped. Like, Claudia was the REASON for VC in the first place. IWTV is about Anne Rice grieving her daughter, and it sucks that the best way they could come up with existential cosmic horror for a teen girl vampire was to give her a perma-hymen and have her raped. It’s just gross, I don’t like it lol.

The first quote I saw from RJ when the show got announced, he said something like "IWTV was written by a grieving mother" -- not Anne Rice, best selling author who reinvented the vampire genre, but "a grieving mother." And it's just, idk. Rubs me the wrong way that he can reduce her that way and be this disrespectful for the character based on her daughter. =/

[vivi-scera]

ohhhh i have so many questions to ask now that i apologize beforehand for throwing you questions instead of actually giving a response-reply to your ask 😭

1) “i like thinking about jason-robin's relationship with bruce the most but i like tim as robin best” plss if u could pls elaborate on this? this is so interesting bcs for a second i thought it would be jason robin or even dick robin since hes the first one!

2) ”i think i was mostly thinking bruce/jason since i was talking about johndean” this is interesting too bcs i was hyperfocused on comparing dean’s devotion to dick’s, hence my ask & why i bring dick robin specifically, and now im curious abt your comparison :D

3) “i'm going to be actively problematic and say that bruce sees dick as something less than his partner and something more than his son” is it like what i think it is is it more in line with smth smth owning smth smth *eyes emoji*

4) your tags!! thats interesting too that you prefer jaytim as batcest, instead of like timdick whos more like brothers or jaydick with jason’s “envy” (to simplify it) at dick’s golden boy ness (also to simplify it) which could be a source of conflict between jason & bruce

haha no worries, i did totally set you up.

1.yeah so tim is my favorite robin <3 relatively unpopular opinion to have in my immediate circle apparently. though probably not as unpopular as saying damian is your favorite. but like, tim's the underdog! the odd one out!! he understands the meta-narrative role that robin plays in batman's life and tries to fulfill it. he's such a deeply interesting character not only in how he views himself as the weakest robin/the robin batman didn't choose, but also in how the other robins, canonically, view tim as the best out of them (because he's the most like daddy). i don't mind as much when fanon obfuscates his characterization because he really can be such a blank slate, more or less. as in, meta-narratively, tim decides to be whatever/whoever is best for batman, erasing the part of himself that is tim drake in favor of coalescing with "robin". he's the only robin who really is robin. which is really very tragic if you think about it. but also makes for fantastic bruce/tim fodder :) i would expand more on my love for tim but this ask would get WAY too long. read Liminal Space by Calamityjim on ao3 if you've watched young justice and have read the red robin 2009 run (an EXCELLENT read btw) if you want the gist of the angst.

as for the others, i think jason has had the best character evolution —not just in the batman storyline but as a comic character in general. i really think his death, and to a much lesser extent his rebirth, is the best/most impactful development in all of superhero comic history. superheroes as we know them today would largely not exist without his character. dick is fine, i like him third best. just because he was the first doesn't make him special to me lmao. the fact that others came after him is what makes him interesting to me, in addition to his relationship with batman— which is currently the most interesting batman-robin romantic relationship to me rn. i've seen some insane meta about him around but mostly based on somewhat outdated runs, which really doesn't mean anything when it comes to comics i guess. i don't think he's been in anything interesting/good in over a decade. i also wish i could mail tom taylor anthrax <3 damian is... my least favorite (skipping steph, sorryy i do love her but there's not enough canon for me to have an actual opinion). i think damian's interesting but only as a source of conflict (and ofc his dynamic with dick-batman). he doesn't really stand on his own and he's annoying.

2. i don't necessarily think that bruce/jason is closer to johndean than bruce/dick is (i actually think bruce/tim is closer relatively, but there's not a comparable pairing imo. i also just don't think dick is necessarily "devoted" to batman as much as tim is. his goals, like mentioned, align more with being able to call himself bruce's equal, which could be conflated with desire i.e. in bruce/dick). but there are a lot of functional aspects of the jason-robin & batman dynamic that is parallel to the relationship between dean and john as hunters imo— mostly having to do with consensual practices. is dean/jason-robin in control of his narrative purpose as a hunter/sidekick or are they doing what is necessary to survive? what does it mean for either of them when duty and pleasure are conflated? etc. i really love the headcanon that jason was a child-prostitute, which would be a functional role that carried over in being robin for another older man, so that was mostly where i was coming from. child soldiers... can't get enough of em.

3. haha i don't really know what the "something" is that i was referring to, just some vague middle ground that's gonna go undefined because where's the fun in defining the relationship that a man shares with the preteen ward in his possession who he may or may not want to be his son but who he treats like a spouse because mentally & emotionally he hasn't moved on from the day he was 9 years old and his parents died. maybe dick grows up but bruce never will :'). well, maybe he grows up a little when each robin leaves him

4. and yaaaa jaytim, favorite pairing of all time. they can be enemies to lovers. the ghost and the haunted. rebecca and the narrator. brother-rivals trying to become their father but who are held back by the lack of a quality that the other possesses (see nearmello death note). i'm gonna go the fanon route and say jason was tim's robin (even though, timeline wise, it could totally have been dick). so there is that adoration-envy (that tim would have for jason) that jason would have for dick in jaydick (which is a pairing i also like, don't get me wrong! i just maybe like it as a one-sided thing. or we could have the worst love triangle in the world with damian->tim->jason->dick->bruce all unrequited lmao). but in jaytim there's the addition of the danger element— jason at one point or another did want to kill tim. and not only was jason tim's robin, he was also his ghost story! an example of what would happen to tim if something went wrong. so adoration-envy-fear which transmutes to sexual interest. very sadomasochistic route we could take there. and for jason, tim is the kid who replaced him! who's evidently better at being daddy's favorite! he can die psychosexually mad about it. neither timdick or jaydick have that enemies/lovers edge that i really like (see kurokura hunter x hunter). they also just have some interesting canon history that writers never get into— like batman-jason trying to conscript tim as his robin during battle for the cowl. i am TRYING to write a jaytim fic but i keep getting distracted by other pairings. i thought i was gonna get to it after finishing the one i'm working on but i might just do brudick next so we'll see. send more questions/responses if you have them <3

[midnight-museum]

Midnight Museum Tidbits:

Similar: Part 1, Gun cut subbed from MM live

Q: Tor's thoughts on Gun

He's like a little brother. He's a little sassy. He's cute. Overall I feel comfortable when I shoot with him on set. Everything is good because he's such a good actor. He's one of my respect...you know that? uhm sorry I'm not good to explain but I try my best >.<" hope you get it! [Clip]

Q: why does Nong Gun call you Phi Tor?(Gun is older than Tor)

Tor: When we met in the first day, he asked me to call him nong Gun, but when we are on set I call him Phi Gun. I promised him that when fans are around, I will call him Nong Gun. Fulfill his wish~ [clip]

Q: Why does Gun call you KK?

Tor: I actually can’t really tell, but it’s not about MidnightMuseum already. it's about a relationship between friends I read some comments, somebody said it's a short form but in fact not just only K.K. 2 alphabet, there's many stories inside KK. [clip]

When EP4 aired, the script writer complimented to Tor and Gun. Tor's character has so many bg story, so he had to learn a lot abt what he has passed before. As for Gun's character, he can't remember anything. It means he has no bg, so he had to design his acting by himself. [Cr]

Tor said he read a lot of feedback online and saw people come up with theories but none of them were right.[This was said when only 4 eps were out!] [Clip]

From an event after 4 eps had aired:

Gun: Bright is good at acting

Off: Yes, Bright is good, And Pat too, right?

Gun: Yes, Pat is good

Off: And also both Gun and Tor, when they're together, it's good. [translation, clip]

Q: Gun gets asked if filming with Foei was funny

Gun mentions the initial scene he has with Foei where Dome says "I didn't say I'd take the job" and Triphob says "but will you?" They laughed hard while filming that but the director kept filming. [Translation, Clip]

Q: How was filming Midnight Museum?

Gun: It's fun. It's is similar to something i filmed when i was small, cause i filmed Gomin. I haven't play this kind for a long time, so when i back to film it was fun. Everything we needs to be imagined by ourselves. We would be in an empty room looking like crazy but we had to believe like we could see what is happening. If not, it will make us feel very funny. For example, Namtan need transform to red bride, if we don't believe (that she can transform), we would feel like laughing. When we are not filming, we will tease each other but once filming starts, we have to be immersed. [Translation, Clip]

Tu was asked if her character in mm, nong bee, will be cute? (Asked before her ep was out)

Tu: the cutest!! [Translation + Clip]

Fah talking about working with Tu on MM

Fah: It's really nice to work with her! She's really nice and you know since we worked together in F4, it's is like very very good to her again on set and I could see the improvement in her. She did a very great job in that and it was very fun to work with her! Like. Super fun. So yeah, it was a good experience [Clip]

{♡Some translations are same as they were from the hyperlinked source tweet but some are slightly altered to be more understandable while preserving the meaning of the hyperlinked translation out of personal discretion, few are combinations of gtranslations and fantranslations. Any mistakes found are unintentional and regretted. Will be more than happy to correct in case of discrepancies.♡}

[dae-rise]

1st anon you answered here again - Thank you for the article links, I'll deffo check them out. Apologies as well for the assumption that you might not have considered poverty/indigenous ppl etc, as it's not something you can tell unless it's mentioned or known in person.

I think i'm so used to seeing people who are vegan to be on the extreme ends of the scale (extreme hostility towards all others who eat meat vs those who don't care at all abt what others eat but just are vegan themselves), that seeing your calmer view is actually a breath of fresh air, and it actually does make me want to further research the topic.

Whilst I don't think I'd ever be able to be a dietary vegan, I'm actually quite glad and surprised that you can be considered vegan for other reasons, such as just not buying leather - again, I think it's difficult to find views like this as the majority of views online can be quite extreme. Thanks for opening my eyes to this as well.

And finally, I definitely do agree that many ppl can be oblivious to animal agriculture and its effects, and I do think that if people are in the position where they can't eat vegetarian/vegan, they should still advocate for the improvement of animal welfare.

I do hope that you aren't too disheartened by any negative comments you got - I know I'm on anon too, but I'm just a bit scared to speak off anon, and I would feel awful sending hateful messages behind an anonymous mask. I hope you have a decent holiday season regardless.

You have no idea how happy it makes me to hear you say all of this! When I turned vegan (not so long ago) I felt so much joy and willingness to share my passion for the topic, only to quickly find out that people tend to criticise vegans on the spot. I have sent sources before like I did with you, but they weren't even looked at. It seems like vegans are commonly seen as individuals who are annoying, extreme, privileged and whatnot. And I'm sure some of them are like that, as it is with every other 'group' really - but don't let it mislead you into believing all vegans are like that. Truth be told, I have yet to meet one single vegan who is like that. Besides, where does this idea of the 'annoying vegan' come from? We all have it in our minds, but why? Have we actually met one? Honestly, being at a dining table with others as a vegan has been the complete opposite for me: I'm the one who gets questioned, annoyed, criticised and made fun of. I still remember the very first reaction I got at a restaurant, as soon as I revealed I am vegan: "what, is your dog vegan too? Hahaha!" and from that point on, everyone at the table began talking about veganism and how extreme it is, in front of me, without listening to me. Everybody was suddenly a nutrition expert and began trying their best to show me a point that makes veganism invalid. It felt really bad and uncomfortable, and the same thing has repeated over and over, except for a few nonvegan friends who were simply curious about my choice and asked me normal questions. I shared my experience with other vegans and they've been through the same thing if not worse. Sorry for rambling, I just really want to tell you I understand, and that I had the same idea of vegans in my mind before becoming one. But being one has opened my eyes a lot. I personally don't like classifying myself as me vs. them, that's a dangerous path to take… before being vegan, I am a person, just like you, just like them, just like us. There are no sides, as I see it.

Thank you for apologising, I'm sorry as well if I made you feel uncomfortable in any way. I promise I did not mean to guilt trip anyone with my drawing, and it's absolutely great that you came and told me what you think about it! It means the world to me when someone tells me what they think or feel about my art. You're right, online views can be extreme, and I admit I have reblogged posts that felt like an accusatory finger pointed at nonvegans, but I'm still learning. Those posts feel kind of comforting, especially when others attack my beliefs (which happens a bit too often with veganism). But I'm going to try my best to keep in mind how it might sound to people who aren't vegans.

Oh, and yeah, right? I've always thought that being vegan means not eating any animal product or byproduct. A lot of people have this misconception in their minds, so when I read the actual definition of veganism, I was surprised! I quote, "Veganism is a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude—as far as is possible and practicable—all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose" it is just so liberating to read, isn't it? All I need to do is whatever is in my power and within my possibilities to reduce, as much as I can, my contributions to the animal agricolture industry. There is no such thing as a perfect vegan. But I can still do something, and that will be enough. For example, I personally chose to go down the dietary route (I just baked a vegan blueberry cake, hehe!) but I have yet to exclude animal products from my clothing (I have some clothes that partially contain wool, but I decided not to donate them for now - I'm taking it one step at a time). As you can see, it's really not as black and white as it is commonly believed. I'm just doing what I can.

It's okay to be on anon. I have an idea of who you are, but of course, I can't be sure. What matters is that you were so very kind with your asks and I'm grateful ❤️ Well, the other anon is clearly going through a lot and I just wish I could've helped more. There are far worse things I could've received so I'm okay, don't worry! Please let me know what you think of the stuff I linked you. Don't let anything guilt you. This will be simply you reading about things and learning from different sources. And I applaud you for it!

Merry Christmas, if you celebrate it ⭐

[mugenloopdalove]

i want to preface this by saying i have good intentions AND i am not the best with wording things or getting the point across. take this message if it helps, delete it if it doesn’t! you are not obligated to reply to this either, and i also understand my mindset isn’t going to work for everyone. you can’t reply to anon asks privately, but you don’t have to post this if you don’t want to, either :)

i just want to say that the amount of engagement you get doesn’t matter. i want to see your stuff! i want to see you post about your self ships and your faves and all the things you like — but i also want to remind you that getting a bunch of asks doesn’t make you any less or more valid, okay?

i admit that i get not feeling wanted or accepted by the community (there are a SURPRISING number of people who feel this way, too) so i’m not trying to be like “grrr you’re being so negative! who cares?!?! just cheer up and be magically happy :)” bc it doesn’t work like that, unfortunately 😅 but i want to remind you that you also deserve your space in the community, so please don’t delete your blog over a lack of interactions.

whether you get one letter or many, you are just as equally loved and appreciated AND worthy of having a space online. there are definitely more popular blogs out there with many many interactions (i find myself envying them, too) but that does not make them better than you. besides, i find that the people who often send them asks are like, their friends anyways. (but i lack any in the comm, so.. 💀)

me personally, i often hold back from sending letters because i don’t know many of the popular sources and am afraid of making it ooc 💔 they have anons off and i don’t want them to be weirded out or reveal my blog, etc. but never ever have i not done it because i disliked the blog personally or anything. it does not mean anyone dislikes you or doesn’t care about your ships (honestly: even if nobody cared, you should still post about the things you like) but i will admit that it does feel nice to know some stranger put the effort into writing for you, that people like hearing your stuff, so i’m also sort of conflicted...

i don’t even know where i’m going with this 😅 but i just wanted to say, from one stranger to another, you are very much loved and appreciated. i understand it can be lonely and i am not trying to give you advice or be all like “you’re too sensitive” or nothing! i am just trying to say that i hear you and i hope you either get the interaction you want or learn to be okay with the lack of it. take care and please be more kind to yourself, i hope you do not spiral into negativity and self hatred. we are only here for so long, please be more kind to yourself if you can help it.

sending all my love (and a cold pillow) 💗

Thank you... Ive just really wanted engagement lately bc I've felt pretty dam lonely and having trouble coming up with new situations. My brains been kind of repeating the same stuff on loop and unless I luck out and get an f/o dream it's just the same stuff I've seen a million times before and I'm not sure how to get new thoughts.

I also... Frequently join communities and see everyone get way more love than me and it reminds me of growing up alone a lot. Jebeheb

I'm trying to make friends in to community rlly rlly hard I'm just. Shy and awkward hdhdhfhft. I want to talk to so many ppl but outside of like memes I'm scared to. Even letters I'm scared to bc I have like... No confidence in my writing jsjsjer it's one thing if I'm writing for myself but writing for someone else is scary.

Thank you though...maybe I just need to take a breath and a step back and maybe a break. I just don't know what to do for an escape other than self ship fhfudir I never formed a lot of coping mechanisms just fiction and lately it's been harder and harder for me to get that on my own and I want help from others

I know I shouldn't rely on engagement your right Abt that. I'm trying not to and this did help me feel better. I just wish I could get some help w getting new things in my brain I guess

[djuvlipen]

After seeing your Roma lesbians post I was wondering if you know what Romani lesbians think of the labrys lesbian flag? I'm asking because I once saw a bisexual Roma girl saying how it's anti-Roma because the upside down black triangle was used on lesbians very briefly and was actually predominantly a symbol Nazis used on Romani people.

Sorry for the delay, I’ve been working on that ask for the past few days because it’s a very delicate question that I knew I would eventually get asked one day (and I’ve also delayed it because I’ve literally been insane for the past 3 days but I’m calmer now lol)

I’m gonna preface this by saying two things:

1. When it comes to questions about the remembrance of the Romani Holocaust, it’s best to listen to Roma people from countries where Roma were exterminated by the Nazis (excluding the US, the UK, and Spain). Saying this because I’ve seen some British and American Roma trying to speak over continental European Roma about how we should feel about Holocaust symbols.

2. I am a history major focusing on Romani Holocaust history and also a Romani lesbian. I know several other Romani lesbians (some of them are radfems, some are libfems, some aren’t particularly feminists)

To answer your question: All the Romani lesbians (once again, only talking about those from countries where the Romani genocide happened) I know, including myself, are very critical of the labrys flag and are opposed to gadje (including lesbian gadje, including jewish gadje, including lesbian jewish gadje) reclaiming the black triangle.

I will explain the reasons why below the cut because this post is going to be pretty long

Very brief introduction: the black triangle was a badge used by Nazis, notably at Auschwitz-Birkenau, to mark "asocial" prisoners. The category "asocial" was a very broad one encompassing all categories of individuals who were seen as "parasitic" or as a "nuisance" and likely to cause the degeneration of the German people. These categories were: "Gypsies", alcoholics, homeless people, prostitutes, and many many more.

But the Roma have a very specific relationship with the black triangle, very different from the one other “asocial” groups have with it because:

1. It was a symbol of racist (not only social) persecution. For the "Gypsies", the asocial category had a very racial component (Roma were thought of as being homeless alcoholics etc by blood and heredity).  It laid the ground for racist persecution.

2. Most “asocial” inmates were Roma, especially after the december 1942 Auschwitz Decree in which Himmler orders the deportation of all European Roma to Auschwitz to be murdered (also known as the Final Solution to the Gypsy Question). After december 1942, most “asocials” happened to be Roma. There were 24.000 Roma in Auschwitz in total, meanwhile there were fewer than 200 prostitutes.

3. For Roma, it was a symbol of extermination. The Roma, alongside Jewish people, were the only group marked for total annihilation by the Nazis. As a result, the experience of Roma was very different from the one of all the other “asocial” groups.

Non-romani “asocials” were sent to concentration camps. Meanwhile, Roma were sent to concentration and extermination camps and were often at the very bottom of the camp hierarchy alongside Jewish people. The Auschwitz “Gypsy camp” had one of the highest death rate of all the camps in Auschwitz.

4. Aftermath. The Romani genocide resulted in the death of 25-67% (estimations) of the total Romani population in Europe at the time, including the entirety of the Bohemian, Lituanian, Latvian and Estonian Romani populations. These are proportions that no other asocial categories reached. Because these categories weren't targeted for extermination.

NB: not saying all this to take away from the violence and suffering non-romani alcoholics, prostitutes, and homeless people went through in concentration camps. I just want to stress that Roma people have a unique relationship with the black triangle because it’s the symbol that was associated with our genocide. For us, it meant gas chambers and Mengele experimenting on little Romani children (yeah because as he was the head of the “Gypsy hospital”, Romani kids were his favourite targets).

So this is why we generally don’t want gadje to use the black triangle. Because we were the only ones exterminated during a genocide whil wearing it.

But now, as for lesbians in particular reclaiming the black triangle, we usually bring up other talking points such as:

Very few lesbians were deported to concentration camps for being lesbians. In camp registries, the mention “lesbian” was always put as an addendum, and was never registered as being the first and main reason for imprisonment. That means lesbianism was an “aggravating factor” that usually worsened the experience of the lesbian detainees, but it was not the determining factor behind their arrestation. Most of the lesbians who were deported, were deported because they belonged to another group, mostly Jewish or Romani.

For example, in Ravensbrück (a very large, female-exclusive concentration camp), there were only 3 registered lesbians. Two of them were deported for political reasons (with “lesbian” as an addendum), so they wore the red triangle. One of them was deported for being “asocial”, so she had to wear the black triangle. That is only one lesbian being made to wear the black triangle within a camp of 130.000-132.000 inmates. Meanwhile, all the Romani women in Ravensbrück wore the black triangle. There is a clear disproportion here, between 1 registered lesbian gadji and thousands of Romani women.

NB: I am not saying this to take away from the suffering lesbian gadje went through in concentration camps. Their experience was usually worse than the one of straight women if other people knew these women were lesbians. I am also not AT ALL implying the Nazis didn’t persecute lesbians. During the IIIrd Reich, lesbians had to deal with intense misogyny that forced all women to marry and make children on the one hand, and with intense homophobia on the other hand, which resulted in intense policing, social surveillance, and destruction of the lesbian culture they had built in the Weimar Republic.

To conclude, the Romani lesbians that I know, who come from countries where the Romani Holocaust happened, and who are aware of the existence of the labrys flag, are against lesbian gadje reclaiming the black triangle for the following reasons:

1. Roma are the only “asocial” group to have endured genocide at the hands of the Nazis in concentration and extermination camps.

2. Roma have a lot of intergenerational trauma because of the Holocaust. Other “asocial” groups don’t, because for alcoholic and homeless people, for prostitutes and for lesbians, collective memory isn’t passed from parents to children. A Romani child has Romani (great-)grandparents who survived the Holocaust, but a lesbian child doesn’t necessarily descend from lesbian Holocaust survivors.

3. Obscuring the fact that the black triangle was a predominantly anti-romani hate symbol is also detrimental to spreading awareness and educating people about the Romani Holocaust. This point is maybe the most important because the Romani genocide is incredibly overlooked, and by “overlooked”, I mean:

the FRG only recognized the Romani genocide in 1982. Up until that date, courts maintained that the persecution Roma suffered because of the Nazis between 1939 and 1942 had been lawful and justified because we were “primitive” criminals

absolutely no Nazi or former SS doctor was ever condemned by a court for crimes committed against Roma people

most Romani survivors never received any financial compensation

the majority of the Romani survivors who are still alive today live in poverty. About 80% of the total European Romani population are at risk of poverty.

And all of this is why seeing the black triangle associated first and foremost with lesbophobia and with lesbian history is distasteful to the Romani lesbians I know and whose families were persecuted by the Nazis.

This is already very long but I am going to add a few things:

1. Even Romani activists don’t reclaim the black triangle. In many Romani cultures, there is a deep and almost religious respect of dead people, of our dead ancestors etc. Even saying the name of dead people can be a huge taboo. The only exception to this, are German Sinti activists who wore the black triangle during protests and hunger strikes in the 1980s, but most of these people were themselves Holocaust survivors and they were protesting for the FRG to recognize the Romani genocide.

2. Romani lesbians face a lot of lesbophobia and misogyny from their own communities (you can check up Vera Kurtic’s radical feminist book Dzuvljarke to know more about this if you want). Yet lesbian spaces, which are supposed to be safe spaces for us, can feel very alienating for us because of how much the black triangle can be present, and how prevalent it is to portray it as a predominantly anti-lesbian symbol. I personally have a good lot of intergenerational trauma associated with the Holocaust, I had constant nightmares about it during my childhood, I can be triggered by it sometimes, and if it’s possible for me to avoid being exposed to symbols that instantly brings to my mind the thought of my people, my ancestors, my family, dying or being tortured, I do that. And yes, this is very alienating.

3. Most of the time if not all of the time this debate is brought up, it usually ends with lesbian gadje being racist against Roma. I’ve seen it many times. Lesbian Roma are constantly talked over, insulted, and bullied every time one of us criticizes the labrys flag. That’s why I’m begging you to please not send me rape or death threats, please don't be mean or mad at me for this post otherwise i will deactivate and die ig.

I once again want to reiterate that I am really not taking away from all the pain lesbians endured because of the Nazis. Lesbophobia and misogyny were an integrant part of the Nazi regime. Lesbians’ experience in concentration camps was worsened by the fact they were lesbians. I personally think that we can acknowledge all of that while simultaneously acknowledging that Nazis carried a genocide against Roma and that the black triangle was mostly worn by Roma, to mark all the Roma wearing it for genocide, and is a predominantly anti-romani symbol first and foremost. These two statements can coexist.

If you are interested, a lesbian romani radfem made a redesign of the labrys flag without the black triangle. Her tumblr username is @zorafem and @/radzora on twitter. Here it is:

And here are some sources for all that I said above to prove to you that I’m not making all my arguments up (unfortunately I’m not from an english-speaking country so my sources typically aren’t in english, but here are a few that are):

KIELAR, Wieslaw, Anus mundi

WACHSMANN, Klaus, KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps

WEISS, Anton, The Genocide of the Roma, chapters 7 and 8

And because books are not really ideal for a quick fact check, here are some articles:

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/lesbians-under-the-nazi-regime

https://www.ushmm.org/m/pdfs/2000926-Roma-and-Sinti.pdf

https://www.romasintigenocide.eu/en/home

http://romafacts.uni-graz.at/pdf_view.php?t=history&s=h_5_1

http://romafacts.uni-graz.at/pdf_view.php?t=history&s=h_5_0

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/ravensbruck-timeline-of-persecution

Unfortunately some of them are in German and you have to be logged in to access. As you can guess, there aren’t THAT many academic papers related to Romani history or to lesbians during the IIIrd Reich:

http://www.cultpress.de/rosa-winkel/Zinn_Situation_lesbsicher_Frauen.pdf

https://www.worldcat.org/fr/title/47812452

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-86226-853-5_6

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J082v30n03_01

And this great article about the “asocial” category (in french): https://journals.openedition.org/ccrh/3337?lang=en

[yomiurinikei]

003 with Yuri or irl Mikado (you don't have to do the latter, I just wanna know if your thoughts on him are the same as his asshole alter ego

this is late as fuck but i don't like irlkado either i just don't have bad memories of interacting with him so like. imagine hearing about some god awful person online. yeah u hate them but u don't know the bitch so. eh. anyways he and aikado are canonically the same bitch just aikado was able to kill irlkado so like... yeah irlkado would've/planned to do the same shit as aikado did and god i need to make a post talking about my psuedomemories + interacting with fandom as a fictive and how that affects my view of myself and my trauma but anyways. yurisms 

(may rb this with irlkado later! i just don't rlly feel safe typing on my phone rn so i wanna at least get this up)

003 | Give me a character & I will tell you:

How I feel about this character: he's fun! a lot of times he's portrayed as like. really misogynistic and shit (or he used to be, he's been handled better recently) but that's just inaccurate to him and who he is. like many other characters, he just has internalized issues and trauma which he was never given proper help for, so! he's a good lad and vv fun to think about, i hold trans lesbian yuri vv dear to my heart. also conceptually he's fucking hilarious, like linuj should've treated him seriously because yur is trauma ended up being used as a joke, but “small buff russian astrosimp” is so entertaining

Any/all the people I ship romantically with this character: hashiuri is big one! + maerin comes to mind! for trans girl yuri + using the rewritten i go over in my requests page, i like kokoyuri and yuri/hibiki!

My favorite non-romantic relationship for this character: oh! using this as a chance to just go over dynamics, i'd like to see him interact with sora while knowing her identity as akane + meeting akane again, and learning about her relationship with utsuro! his desire was to be as important to a girl as akanes boy was to her, so seeing him learn how their dynamic truly was, and seeing how that changes his views and goals would be inch a resting i think!

My unpopular opinion about this character: i don't think i really have one! the issues i see with him being mischaracterized aren't as popular as they used to be, so! uh his hair is best in the new years art though, there's that. beta yuri has that hairstyle because yeah ✨

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: mmm like what i said in the relationship part, it'd be cool to see him have his mentality challenged! we don't know a lot abt how it first formed, but seeing his reaction to learning the source of his dedication was unhealthy, and seeing how he grows afterwards would be neat!

Favorite friendship for this character: couldn't think of anything for this so. using my villain!iroha concept (the one using her unused potential with her canonical character depth) i think that could be fun to see? having them b friends then seeing yuri react to her killing someone, especially in the verse i usually use where she gives kokoro the final blow and outs emma as a void,, yeas inch a resting

My crossover ship: uhm. trans yuri/tenko mayhaps? maybe. yuri/hinata. hmg.