#if you want an alec is abused uwu fic so bad write about his actual canon abusers lmao don't turn magnus into something he's not

[normal-thoughts-official]

Someone just wrote a fic about Magnus abusing Alec and Magnus being a alcoholic and I don't know how to feel about it because Magnus being abusive doesn't sound right but I do think he is addicted to alcohol and I want your opinion on it

oh yikes on bikes, not that shit again

i mean personally i don’t consider him an alcoholic, not because oh no being alcoholic is so bad uwu but because like... alcoholism is specifically linked to the inability to stop or have temperance, and while magnus drinks frequently, we’ve only seen him drunk once. and he had just gone through one of the most dramatic experiences of his life, so like... i think classifying him as an alcoholic because of that is a little, idk, hasty?

and even then, he decided that he was going to quit drinking the next day basically and he didn’t seem to be distressed or think that would be particularly hard (and like one of the symptons of alcoholism is distress when not being drunk/drinking) so i don’t think he’s An Alcoholic. i do think that he has an unhealthy relationship with alcohol, as he does have a tendency to turn to it when he’s in distress, and that that’s something he has to work with cuz that bitch is self medicating with a highly addictive and complicated substance lol and he knows that too, which is why i think he said he would take a break - he knew that he was toeing the edge then, going way over his limit and even being late for a date for like the first time ever, and turning to it when he couldn’t deal with his pain. so like unhealthy tendencies for sure, but idk if id call it addiction. reading the criteria for alcoholism, i don’t think that any that is something that we’ve seen with magnus except for literally one scene

but either way i don’t think it’s like A Problem or Invalid to hc him as an alcoholic, but i do wish people would stop thinking that being an alcoholic = being abusive. while there is a correlation between domestic abusers and drinking (drinking specifically, not necessarily Abusing Alcohol, at least not in the statistics i’ve found), alcoholism doesn’t turn someone into an abuser, means that someone is an abuser, or trigger abusive episodes (same source), because correlation does not equal causation. it’s important to take note that the studies on this are usually “is this domestic abuser an alcoholic?” and not, “is this alcoholic a domestic abuser?”. finding that domestic abusers usually drink doesn’t mean finding that people who drink or abuse alcohol are usually domestic abusers. also, finding that domestic abusers drink doesn’t..... mean a lot. most people drink, for starters. the one statistic i found regarding domestic violence and alcohol abuse actually shows that abuse victims are more likely to abuse alcohol

and i find that important to say because the stereotypes on alcoholism and drug abuse are fabricated by anti-drugs propaganda, which are historically directly related to the need for increasing police state and control over marginalized people, especially people of color (here’s Nixon’s very own aide admitting that they made up most of what are today’s stereotypes on heroin and weed use with the explicit intent of incarcerating black people and the anti-war movement, and here’s a review of a book on the war on alcohol that goes, among other things, into how the prohibition was strictly linked to lynchings and repression of black and immigrant communities). uncritically buying into stereotypes like this, especially when there is implied to be a direct causation between drug abuse and violence, is very dangerous and serves to further marginalize and stigmatize people with substance abuse, as well as justify mass incarceration and policing, which has been talked about plenty of times (if you know little about this and would like to start, i’d recommend watching the documentary The 13th Amendment. it’s on netflix. also, follow and read BLM activists, who have been saying this since forever. do read and watch Angela Davis, one of the most brilliant scholars on the subject and member of the Black Panther Party) 

that is my own personal opinion, but i find it way more likely that alcoholism and alcohol abuse are correlated not by causation, but because alcoholism is born out of a person’s frustrations/suffering, and that, paired with toxic masculinity in certain specific environments and a tendency for violence, also causes domestic violence. i don’t have any data to prove this so this is my own personal hypothesis born out of what i know about addiction (here’s a list of articles by an expert that talks about how addiction has biopsychosocial causes, with an emphasis on social) and also about abuse and domestic violence. i find it way more likely that they are correlated, not that alcoholism causes domestic violence. but i’m far from an expert and this is an ongoing debate among those who are

and either way, even if there is a possible causational relation, not every substance abuser is abusive and that’s just a fact. which i know because i have plenty of friends who struggle or struggled with substance abuse, including alcoholics and crack/coke addicts. obviously it’s a terrible situation that raises many issues, but it doesn’t mean that everyone who struggles with substance abuse or alcoholism is abusive. and magnus has never shown to be abusive, so even if you hc him as an alcoholic (which i honestly don’t necessarily see a problem with, even if i disagree) that doesn’t mean he would abuse alec. magnus has never been shown to be anything remotely close to abusive towards alec, or anyone else for that matter. on the contrary, he is extremely compassionate, kind, and caring, to the point of self sacrifice. so if you want to write about magnus struggling with his issues and with his unhealthy relationship with alcohol, i’m genuinely all for that. we deserve more in-depth analysis of magnus and his issues and its consequences. but don’t turn him into something that he’s not, and stop fucking thinking that everyone who struggles with substance abuse is an abuser, because that is, frankly, just a spit in the face of abuse victims who have turned to drugs to cope with that (the case of literally all of my friends who struggle or have struggled with substance abuse) and just people with addiction in general who are already villainized for something that hurts them first and foremost more than enough

so yeah, that’s my opinion. you can 100% headcanon magnus as an alcoholic and still don’t think he would abuse or be violent because of that - in fact, i encourage you to, because we need to start talking about addiction with more empathy and less villainizing, and that absolutely does include fiction

[takaraphoenix]

Dear Anonymous Shithead...

...please stay off of other people’s fanfiction.

If you want to insult me and bend the meaning of words to make me look bad, at the very least do it on my own stories and do not come after me in the comment section of other writers when I come to their stories to tell them what I liked about their stories. That’s... intensely inappropriate.

ah yes, the well known Racist Of The Year in the shadowhunters fandom. how's it going? still complaining not everyone adores jace the shitty white boy? still villiainizing, objectifying, and sidelining magnus and other poc? still insisting that incest is great? mm yeah i thought so 

Now, let’s have some fun with the hilarity of your comment.

Racist of the Year. Hey, I won an award! Wow.

This is what’s wrong with tumblr. This is why we’re suffering from a Peter and the Wolf situation. Because you’re abusing serious words for your own purpose.

I’m racist because I break Magnus and Alec up.

Sure. I literally wrote 50 fanfiction featuring Magnus and Alec and Jace in a relationship. But, sure, because it suits you and your perverse, twisted mind, Magnus doesn’t “count” in those. I wrote more fics featuring just Magnus and Jace over Alec and Jace, but surely you find some way to not make them count either.

For the love of the gods, buy a fucking dictionary, because the word “incest”... it doesn’t mean what you think it means. Just because you know a person since childhood doesn’t magically make you blood-related.

Sometimes I wonder how all of those Shadowhunters antis have failed so spectacularly at high school biology and common sense.

I’d just love for those hateful comments to at least remotely be rooted in reality.

Villainizing Magnus Bane? Really? Where? How? When? What the fuck kinda drugs are you on?

Yeah, I’m doing great though, thanks for asking. I literally wrote a fic only centered around Raphael Santiago today. You know, one of them “other poc” that I “sideline”. But why am I telling you that? It’s not like you care about Raphael. Or really Magnus. All you really care about is that your Precious Golden Couple will not be broken up.

All you really care about is that Magnus continues being sidelined and objectified in canon, just for the sake of being a pretty arm-candy for Alec.

Please, for the love of everything that is holy, stop dragging racism into your ship wars. Stop pretending that the only pure way of enjoying anything is by putting all characters of color onto a high pedestal because they can do no wrong and you have to love them all only based on them being POC and that you can not possible be allowed to love a white character anymore because that alone makes you a racist.

That’s not how racism works.

That’s not how fandom works.

That’s not how liking a fucking character works.

I love Magnus Bane. I write a shit-ton of stories about Magnus Bane. If you had ever bothered reading a story of mine, you’d know that I don’t solemnly focus on my “white boy” and that I do what the show doesn’t. Focus on the trauma Magnus has suffered. Because Magnus is an intriguing character that I love.

Unlike you. You just want him to continue making heart-eyes at Alec. You’re the kind of fan whose only comments about the show resolve around being “blessed” just because the show showed you your precious OTP being with each other. Who cares about Magnus’ character actually being fleshed out beyond his relationship with Alec?

I do. Because he’s an interesting character.

You... clearly don’t. At all. And that makes me sad.

Don’t twist things to fit your perverse, little brain. Don’t undermine my love for the characters I write thousands upon thousands of words about, the characters I let deal with the problems the show doesn’t care about addressing.

And stop acting like any of this has anything to do with race.

At the fucking least admit that you stan Ma!ec so hard that you don’t have a fuck to give about either character separate, their emotions and developments and trauma.

And let people who do care about those things continue focusing on and addressing those issues in fanfiction that explore them beyond “Oh my gosh, look at them being in looove!” like you apparently prefer. Sucks for you that it’s not a ship you can get behind.

Racism is a real thing. A real problem. One that people suffer under. It’s quite frankly utterly disgusting that anyone would feel the need to hijack something so heavy and important for their sole agenda of “this person doesn’t like my OTP guess they’re racist and hate the character of color uwu”. The fact that the first thing you latch onto when shipping a white boy of your own with a character of color is that whoever breaks them up must be racist means that you‘re reducing Magnus Bane to being POC. You don’t care about him being a whole character, you don’t care about the facettes of his character.

You’re not validating him by actually doing something with it, by writing your own stories focusing on his background and exploring it. You’re just using it as ammo. You’re the one objectifying him.

Just, crawl back into whatever shithole you’ve been living in for the past couple of years, continue stanning your precious and infallible Ma!ec and shut the fuck up.

[normal-thoughts-official]

Ppl be like "Magnus can't have flaws??! How dare you say nice things about him?!??" sometimes. All of Magnus' characteristics that we use to describe him are Canon but ppl act like we're making his personality up??? Saw someone tag a post abt ppl only making up personalities for guys nd not girls with his name as if he wasn't a main and didn't have his own story+background. It was made worse as they tagged the same post with damon Salvatore nd now I feel sick.

Book!magnus isn't flawed he's a straight up asshole. Ppl like to say he's better than show!magnus because of his dick ways and I'm just like: ????. Show!Magnus does have flaws idiots just lack the critical thinking to find them!

idk who damon salvatore is (i mean im vaguely aware hes from that vampire diaries thing but i know nothing beyond that) but otherwise i agree with u (also, ppl got a lot of nerve putting a coc in a list like that like being a moc means being treated even slightly the same way as a white man lmao. i mean yeah sure hes still got male privilege but are you serious? fandom treating a coc like he deserves nuance and well thought out headcanons and love and attention? wish i lived in that world)

what rlly drives me crazy about this whole "magnus is allowed to have flaws" thing is that like, yeah, he sure is! especially because poc are never allowed to be even the slightest bit human, much less flawed, without people getting up in arms about it. magnus' got plenty of flaws! he's stubborn, he's self sacrificial, he hides his feelings from others, he pushes ppl away when they get too close to his vulnerabilities, he has a tendency to simply Decide what other ppl want or need (like with alec and that whole moving to idris thing), he is impulsive, and a lot of other shit

and it's exactly those flaws that draw me to him, honestly! like i talk about how kind and caring he is all the time, and that is true, but i know that this is, at least partially, him feeling like he needs to be useful to be loved, and erasing himself/defining himself by what he can do for others, which is the same trait that leads him to act in all these ways i mentioned above. it's why i relate to him! it's why i love him! magnus isn't perfect, he is good, a good person, and there's a difference

which is the point i have been wanting to make when i started writing this answer because like. what drives me crazy the most is how those dark magnus stans or whatever love to say that they write him as an evil person who literally enjoys hurting others (like im sorry but have you watched the show?) because he's "allowed to have flaws". usually the same ppl who keep being like "i write my relationships realistically!" and when u check out their fics, it's like, literally abuse. like straight up physical violence and manipulation and gaslighting. and. that's not being realistic, girl! that's normalizing abuse

and it's one thing if this is a dark fic and its supposed to be bad or whatever and u just want to explore that, god knows i write about abuse all the damn time. its another to be like "actually if ppl arent like that its not realistic and ur writing them as perfect uwu beans and u have no nuance and are a bad writer". cuz honestly, if u think "having flaws" is being straight up abusive, and that it's "unrealistic" otherwise, then that tells me all i need to know about how u live ur relationships. if u think its literally impossible to exist in the real world without abusing others then i dont want to have shit to do with u, buddy

(and im not even saying that from just a logical standpoint but also from experience because ive had exes and ex friends who used this whole "actually humans are naturally selfish and dont care about others and enjoy hurting others it's human nature" rethoric [and the whole "realistic" thing is really just that except applied to fiction] and surprise! they were all abusive! either to me or other ppl i knew, usually both)

and it's not unrealistic to be kind and care about others! on the contrary, it's a very normal and natural human trait. so miss me with that "either ur character literally enjoys torturing other ppl or he's being written as perfect" shit. which of course gains particularly strong tones when ppl r writing coc, esp moc. like no one insists that if alec doesn't feel literal pleasure hurting others then that's unrealistic and ppl r making his personality up and treating him like he's perfect. i wonder why 🙄

like the bar for "being written realistically" for white ppl is having flaws, for poc it's being straight up cruel

miss me with that shit! magnus is kind, he is selfless, he is caring, he is willing to do anything to help others, he is loving beyond anything else even after all his trauma! and yes, he is still flawed and realistic, and no, he is not an innocent baby. if he were i wouldn't be into it because i don't want a character who's kind because he doesn't know better, i want a character who's kind because they choose to. nothing could possibly be more boring to me than a character who's nice and unaware that other ppl might be assholes, i want characters who know exactly how terrible other people can be, who have experienced it firsthand, but who are still kind because that's who they are and what they believe in. and that's magnus! he knows perfectly well how full of horrors the world is, how sometimes there is no right choice, how sometimes u need to make sacrifices, how some people are really selfish and cruel and he's even been used by those specifically because he's too kind of selfless. he just chooses to still be kind and selfless anyway

if you could never, that's not my problem, or his writing's lol