#i hate identity discourse

[fisheatingorca]

Where's the identity bible that tells me if im valid or not

[eyezofstatic]

I posted this to my twitter but I think it'll do better numbers over here.

[elf-trash]

casual reminder to the dragon age fandom that criticism of a game isn't an attack on you personally if you are a fan of said game. also, it's very possible to have a nuanced take about these things. e.g. "i liked the queer representation but not some of the politics displayed in the game" etc. if someone says the game's writing displays some questionable neoliberal ideologies, that doesn't mean they're calling YOU a neoliberal for liking it. if someone says they found certain aspects of the game to be islamophobic, they're not calling YOU an islamophobe because you enjoyed the game or didn't see a problem. and so forth.

as has been pointed out, EVERY dragon age game has these problems to varying degrees. there are things they've handled very well in each game (esp for their respective times) and things they fumbled. discussing and critiquing the places where the storytelling fails doesn't invalidate the good things nor does it make you a bad person for liking any of the games. this applies to all media btw, not just dragon age!

and finally, criticism of a piece of media you liked is not inherently bullying nor is it some organized campaign to tear down anyone who enjoyed it and/or the creators of said media. publicly disagreeing with a public opinion posted on a public website where opinions from the opposing side are actively invited isn't bullying. this is the fandom discourse website. if you post fandom discourse and it leads to more fandom discourse, then idk what to tell you!!!! obviously harassment is never okay, but we're talking about a piece of media that none of us had a hand in making. no piece of media is perfect or above reproach nor are criticisms a personal attack on its fans or supporters (or even creators). are some criticisms of the games rooted in bigotry? sure! does that mean all critiques are coming from that place? absolutely not, especially considering a fair amount of the criticism is coming FROM queer POCs.

anyway, this got long and i know the dragon age fandom has quite literally always been Like This and i've been here since origins came out so this ain't my first rodeo. but let's please try not to lump every take we disagree with and paint it all with one extremely bad faith brush!!!!

[sinistersuns]

“I fully transitioned [because i had the wealth and luck to do so] and pass as a cis man all the time now [because i choose to be stealth] and i’m treated better than I was before transitioning [which included hormones and surgery, OBVIOUSLY something every trans man wants]. clearly this means trans men have [cis] male privilege” are you stupid ? are you stupid.

[auggator]

i shouldn’t have to prove my queerness to you to be accepted into queer community

[thesarcasticism]

listen as much as i'm fine with everyone having their own interpretations of different fictional characters and their relationships, i just cannot see aigis and kotone as having a "sisterly" relationship when, in CANON, they are both bisexual and also in love.

like watering their relationship down to that just feels like bi erasure to me and there's pretty much no bi rep in persona after p3 so like. idk man it just rubs me the wrong way, y'know?

[heygirltimeformorning]

do I want Buddie to be canon? sure. but not at the cost of their characterization. listen, shipping is fun and fandom is fun and I see everything that everyone else is seeing - but I think Eddie Diaz has some Shit To Unpack and he deserves to Unpack That Shit at his own pace (which is, yes, glacial). I’m certainly not the authority on queer identity, and as someone who grew up in the church and had deep, internalized homophobia to sort out before I could come to terms with my own sexuality, I think Eddie needs to have his own Moment with his sexuality because he has a different understanding (bc of his upbringing) than Buck does, clearly, of queer identity and that’s ok? I would even go so far as to say that it’s beautiful? being lgbt isn’t always a neat little realization - sometimes it’s really, really scary to have your entire worldview rocked and start coming to terms with something you maybe shoved down deep because it wasn’t something you were safe to be.

(and yes I recognize the irony of this - writing and reading fics where Buddie are happily together with minimal interruption to their daily lives, or where the realization is natural and maybe that could happen (idk I’m not the authority here) in the show, but do I see a show that prides itself on The Drama giving us a neat and tidy resolution to Buddie? haha no. but that’s why I’m a fanfic writer and not a show writer - I get to write my little fantasies in the safety of fandom.)

tldr; if Buddie does go canon, I think that a neat and tidy little “Eddie is Gay and He’s Totally Cool With It” ignores certain things we’ve seen from Eddie. Not that Eddie is homophobic (bc it’s canon he’s not ok) - I’m saying that as a later-in-life queer who was like #ally!! until I had a breakdown about kissing my (female) friend, self-hatred is a hell of a drug.

there is something about “it’s ok for others to be [this], but not for me bc I am [fill in the blank].” Eddie does not view “gay” as negative but I do think he has some shit to kick through & that’s ok - he deserves the chance to do that.

[johnono]

there's this really new social media, and. it has anti-rqs on it before any open rqs. do they have nothing better to do with their lives??

[bugtoast]

Saw some nasty queer discourse come across my dash. Just wanna take a moment to say that all people who identify as queer are valid. No ifs, ands or buts. No identity is inherently "better" than another. You can't queer in the wrong way cause there was never a rulebook to being queer in the first place. anyone who tells you otherwise is probably a cop or some shit idk.

we all are fucked in this bitch of a system either way and should find ways to build eachother up, not tear eachother down!!!

if any of y'all try twisting this to mean something fucked up or try to derail this post i am going to dampen your socks

[ventisslut]

Are you 5?

Also like...what the fuck does venti have to do with the fact that your family deals with alcoholism? you're acting like as if he's the one who caused it?

I'm not even gonna address the other claims cause like...we said this a billion times, he does not sleep voluntarily. He came back to Mondstadt to save his people and fought durin, he also came back to help dvalin. He is NOT constantly drunk it's a charade he puts on to seem weak.

How about we start blaming the actual villains like Rhinedottir and Khaenriah for creating destructive dragons and machines and waging war?

[cowchickenbeefpork]

you know. The true reason why I should not be in the viziepop critical circles anymore is the fact that my arguments with others in there are never normal. These circles are deeply evil. Gotham is similar in writing quality to helluva boss and yet when you go near people aware the show isn’t written good for helluva boss they are insane depraved individuals. This is the worst community ever. I got tumblr dragged for a day for saying viziepop isn’t a zoophile this is what I mean by you shouldn’t hang out with these viziepop bitches. It’s not a good life out here guys don’t even think about it

[unloneliest]

the A in LGBTQIA2S+ stands for asexual and aromantic, yes. this absolutely is not a post arguing against that. but it is absolutely, critically vital that the A does also stand for ally. the plausible deniability that ally being a part of the acronym offers closeted people is a necessity. it's a matter of safety.

[5-7-9]

Found a discourse heavy blog and read a few of their reblog posts

Here’s my opinion: I think people are too hard on themselves for realizing they weren’t transgender. Whatever transtrender is, Who cares if teenagers are questioning? Teenagers question everything! It’s part of life. It’s not like being wrong or making a mistake is the worst thing ever.

[orthosispsychosis]

'man its crazy how people think laios is the most evil man alive just for really intensely engaging his special interest' in the latter half of the 2010s there was ongoing Discourse about newt geiszler pacificrim's interest in kaiju being a disgusting and insensitive thing that, since kaiju are ~basically~ weapons of mass destruction, makes him A Creepy War Fandom Guy who loves human suffering (this was before pac rim2, which is bad, but is not relevant here for other reasons beside it being the Worst. also, there were no statements on whether the guys in the military hierarchy of nuclear-powered punch robots were also Creepy War Fan Guys.) never mind that he is actively yk working against the kaiju, and his pursuit of knowledge of them does in fact majorly directly contribute to saving the world. obviously newt and laios are different characters in different contexts, but presumably .1% or less of the people involved in newt discourse personally knew or were someone victimized by a kaiju so yeah it's actually really easy for me to imagine a bunch of in-world dm people thinking laios is gross and horrifying and dangerous for being interested in monsters. if he wasn't the fandom's Precious Autistic Mascot people here would be saying that about him already. give it a few years and they'll forget the autism and start talking about how shipping labru is bad because laios as a disturbingly socially inept White Man who won't shut up about monsters would be traumatizing for kabru to exist near

[bucket-of-spiders]

”Mspec lesbians aren’t real” “asexuals don’t belong in queer spaces” “neopronouns are cringy” “all men are bad” NO. To the pit with you. Reconsider your views and use your anger for something useful.

[catboynutsack]

I love being a pathetic little Tumblr meow meow irl. I've had multiple people get kicked out of friend groups I'm in over and over bc they showed their true colours--aka they couldn't resist bullying someone so pathetic when coming across them and when everyone realizes that they weren't as progressive as they thought they're immediately excommunicated from the friend group.