#in this case... queer i guess

[lauranthalasah]

So, I read this excellent post about representation and left me thinking.

Since the end of BBC Sherlock* I've had a big problem in the way fandom demands representation sometimes, the way that if it is not exactly what they want then it is worthless. Let me explain myself.

For a long long time a lot of people have seen Holmes and Watson as a couple, and in new recreations of Doyles' work people get more and more hype for a possible in screen representation of this "headcanon", because new times gives hope to them that sooner or later Holmes and Watson ARE going to be gay (sooner or later they are gonna get it, tho).

Now, my issue is that Holmes and Watson have always... ALWAYS been a representation of something that is very dear to me, you see, Sherlock seems to me like asexual and aromantic, while Watson is very clearly heterosexual, but THEY ARE A COUPLE. They are life partners, they are! They just are not interested in each other in a sexual/romantic way, but they very much construct their lives around each other, at least for a while.

BBC Sherlock gives us that end, they end up raising a child together even! For me, the show that gets it right and makes it obvious is Elementary, they purposely made Watson female (and I think heterosexual? maybe bi?), and Holmes is quite sexually active (he might be pan), and then they proceed to give us a story in which they never fell sexually and romantically in love with each other. But do you know what they are at the end of everything?! Life partners!

For a long time people have been trying to put Holmes and Watson's relationship into one tag, when they are a perfect representation of another one that it needs its due representation as well. Like, the day someone finally makes them gay I'm gonna be okay with it, because it is gonna happen and it is gonna be a blast, but I need people to understand that there are other things that are valuable too.

The same happens with Good Omens, there are interesting representations going on there from season 1 (and the book if you want too). But because the author explained that the two protagonists we love were not MEN therefore they were not GAY** a round of "queerbaiting" accusations raised against it. Like they are undoubtedly queer, but because they were not explicitly gay then it was queerbaiting. And I don't like that. 

How many opportunities we'll have of seeing two people fell in love, one of them usually male presenting, one of them however they want to present themselves, both of them in which gender is literally a choice, both of them loving each other, I'll say romantically at least, not necessary sexually, but it could be (more after season 2 I guess). How many times are we gonna see this kind of complexity in a love story? And it is queer! Is so damn queer that we don't have the words for it! They are not humans! But it is a representation of love beyond heterosexual conventions without a doubt.

Also, tell me that Aziraphale and Crowley's romance is the only representation in that show! Or that even Aziraphale and Crowley are the ONLY characters who represent queerness on it?! Tell me that Crowley's gender fluidity isn't fucking amazing! I haven't watched every show in the world, but Good Omens is the most gender transgressive fictional show I have ever seen!

To be fair, I do think we need more queer representation, my point here is that we shouldn't stomp on one kind of representation simply because it is not the one we wanted from it. I don't think any piece of fiction is ever going to meet everyone's expectations of it, it is impossible, but we need to start thinking critically about it. Even when it represents part of what and how we are, it might not be perfect. It might not reflect my reality (there's no fictional work that has ever done that for me), but it doesn't mean it is not representing someone's reality. There's not a singular individual who is going to experience the full spectrum of anything except for their own personal experience of it.

What we need to learn to do is to look around us, to other people that are in similar boats as us who might be telling us "oh wait… I'm sorry that is not you, but that's me!", and we are not listening, and by condemning those fictional works we are kinda telling those people that they are not worthy of representation, or that their representation is less valuable than ours… and I don't like it! Just... just look around once in a while.

*Once upon a time I defended BBC Sherlock over the queerbait allegations against them because the creators were always clear they didn't intend to make Holmes and Watson gay in their show. Later on I realized that not everyone who watches a show watches interviews, cons, etc., but everyone who watched the show would get all those little jabs that, mostly Watson, would get about him and Sherlock being a couple; and I understood why people were so angry and disappointed. They were right to be. So this is not a defence of BBC Sherlock and the shit show they created. I just use the show as an example about Holmes and Watson in general because it's well known on Tumblr.

**I hate that the two examples I used were of gay couples that fandom wanted, I use those because are the cases I know the best, and I truly believe a canon gay Holmes/Watson is just a matter of time.

[ulteri0rm0tives]

one of these days i will get cdpr to admit to the truth behind trans kerry

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

close ups below!

[shaylogic]

Charles, within a few hours of meeting Edwin: I'd love to move in with you and start a business together

Charles, within a few hours of meeting Crystal: Hi! Would you like to see my parents?

Charles, love, I'm begging you to slow down

You absolute u-hauling lesbian

[gothic-ouji]

I hate our Simply Plural right now so I'm going to do that "for every notes this post gets" with SP tasks I've been putting off for months

1 notes — make a profile for a missing member (there's only 15 or so headmates missing)

5 notes — fix someone's description

10 notes — fix someone's info fields

25 notes — fix one of the groups

50 notes — clean out and probably delete our prns.cc pages

75 notes — fix our Pluralkit descriptions

100 notes — fix our god-awful graphics for our SP profile

I don't think my posts have ever gotten more than 100 notes so i doubt this one will either, I think 100 is enough of a limit :3 feel free to spam rb or spam comment, I gotta get these done awhhaaa

[toneth-toneth-toneth]

huh wym paul isn't trans?? what's this then???

[kazbiter]

this email and the fact he was writing him literal poetry. like this is not really an email it is not really a letter it is almost entirely a piece of poetry that alex writes about the way that he loves him. the way he loves henry. henry with the great passion for queer poetry. henry who dreams of the anthology he didn't know he would get the chance to write yet. hello.

[zombie-bait]

So I was checking out the 2020s list of LGBTQ+ video game characters on wikipedia to see if there were any other canon queer characters in KCD2 besides the obvious/well-known ones. I was slightly amused by the questionable word choice and grammar but I understand that wikipedia pages, especially smaller ones, rely on essentially random people submitting info. Whatever.

But. For some reason, I decided to take a peek at the citations provided and promptly lost my mind.

Now I know exactly what this is referring to, a response one of the devs made on a forum (Steam?). Idk how true or genuine the statement itself is, I've just already seen it circulating around. This weird right-wing site using archaic terminology like we're still in the actual medieval ages is unfortunately the first one that pops up if you try to look up the interaction. So I can see the series of events that took place.

The thing is, the phrase "Henry was not a sodomite due to budget constraints" is just already so fucking unhinged and funny that seeing it as an official-ass looking citation in a real wikipedia page killed me. Someone insane unironically wrote that article and posted it online just for a second real individual (with potentially completely opposing views) to see it and go "finally, something to corroborate my wikipedia entry." And now those words are gonna be rattling around my brain forEVER.

[morning-st48]

Most favorite hex?! (main six)

I'm considering making pride enamel pins and can likely only do a couple for now, so I want to know who is the most popular. Please re-share to get more votes. <3 The plan is: Flare Ticker (design is done) kalymos (oh lord she suportin) (design is done)

2 hex members (what this poll is for) Maybe old man Yaoi (Albrecht and Loid together)

if you would be interested in buying any of these as pride pins, could you also comment? cus That would also help me also gauge if its worth doing. Finally, would you associate the hex with BI or Pan more?

follow me to see updates because I'll post designs and so on.

[mygwenchan]

Tag Game: Pick up the book closest to you. Go to page 206. The first sentence explains your love life.

Thank you for tagging me @pinkkop 😘

So... the closest book rn would be "Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation - Part 3" but page 206 is a picture of Wei Wuxian surrounded by walking corpses... so there is that 😅

Idk does that mean my love life is dead, but at least my hair looks pretty? lol

The second closest book is "Courtiers - The Secret History of the Georgian Court" by my beloved Lucy Worsley and wouldn't you know it, page 206 talks about a gay relationship at court! So there is that as well 😂

"If this is true. who was the other man in the relationship that John Harvey described? There's a very strong case that it was none other than Prince Frederick himself."

I'll tag @a-cookie2121 @maxescheibechlinichacheli @watchthisqqq @superfandomlife and everyone else who wants to play as well :3

[ficandkaboodle]

Genuine question: What the helling fuck does it mean if I see girls and think “Man, I wanna be a girl, too :(“…even though I am a girl? Like, as far as I’m aware, I’m cis. I’m already at home base. What the hell does the psyche mean “too”?!?!?

[queeringclassiclit]

Caroline Bingley

from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

submitted by @allhailthebiblipholie

[ceo-of-the-pluto-defense-squad]

"all these achilleans putting women dni in their posts are so cringe and misogynistic!! 😂😒😒"

meanwhile sapphics:

[maybeiamamist4ke]

date idea: i come over and stare at you like this

[victorluvsalice]

Valicer Multiamory Month, Day Twelve: Explaining/mapping the polycule (Running Into The Bullshit AU)

We've hit a fun one today in Multiamory March (as put on by @polyamships) -- "explaining/mapping the polycule!" A prompt all about figuring out how to explain the various relationships within your group of partners, metamours, friends, and what-have-yous --

And the minute I saw it, I was like, "Oh, I have to do this with the Running Headlong Into The Bullshit mega-polycule." XD Running Headlong Into The Bullshit, for those of you not in the know, is my name for the ship that involves not only Victor, Victoria, Emily, Alice, and Smiler, but also Christopher White, my OC based off the White Knight from Through The Looking Glass (with his name and general looking coming from Christopher Lloyd's portrayal of the character in the Hallmark Alice In Wonderland); Richard Hatter (a humanized version of the AMA/A:MR Hatter with a better attitude); and Preston Garvey and Piper Wright from Fallout 4 (two of my favorite companions in the game, and the two I've romanced during my playthrough with my Sole Survivor version of Victor). The ship name itself comes from this post on how each OT3 has the basic roles of "running headlong into the bullshit, pretends to not want to run headlong into the bullshit but secretly loves it, and does not actually want to run headlong into the bullshit but is pulled along by the other two," and my addition about how Victor keeps getting involved with people who want to run into the bullshit. XD It's not really an AU so much as a silly concept I came up with once and occasionally think about (I know it would be an "all modern day college students AU" and that's about it), but given it involves a nine-person polycule, I thought it was perfect for this prompt.

So! Without further ado, I give you Smiler, Richard, and the rest of the polycule explaining their dynamics to an unnamed questioner, who may or may not be regretting asking. :p Enjoy!

--

“Got our visual aid ready, Richard?”

“Yup! Ready when you are, Smiler!”

“Great! Okay, so, the first thing to understand is, most of this polycule revolves around Victor.”

“A fact that confuses even me to this day.”

“We’re working on his self-esteem. Anyway, that puts him here, in the center of this six-partner web of myself, Alice, Victoria, Emily, Preston, and Piper. With me so far?”

“Yes…”

“Fantastic. Now, over here you have the ‘Valicer’ triangle – that’s me, Victor, and Alice. Alice and I are both romantically involved with Victor, but our own relationship is more on the queerplatonic side – that’s why our connecting line is green instead of red. And over here we have the ‘Everdortmack’ triangle – that’s Victor, Victoria, and Emily.”

“We had to use our last names instead of our firsts, for, well, obvious reasons.”

“Right – they are in a proper triad relationship, romantic all around. And here we have the – did you guys ever come up with a name for your threesome?”

“Our names are kind of hard to combine, Yellow. Trust me, I’ve tried.”

“I kind of liked Christopher’s suggestion of ‘The Press, The Past, and the Pale’ – though I think we need a better P-word for Victor.”

“Pale does fit me…”

“We’ll go with the ‘Triple P’ triangle for now. Anyway, yes, this is another triad with Victor, Preston, and Piper. So far, so simple. But now things get interesting, because Preston is also involved with Victoria–”

“We’ve only been on a couple of dates so far, but it’s been very nice.”

“And Piper is involved with Emily!”

“Our dates have been a little more physical. ...DANCING! WE’VE GONE DANCING! STOP LAUGHING!”

“No. And Victoria is also romantically connected to Christopher here–”

“What can I say, I’ve always loved a proper lady.”

“And Richard is involved with Emily!”

“Our dates are not physical at all because I’m asexual.”

“Richard!”

“And overall, we’re all in what you might call a ‘garden party’ polycule – we’re all on good terms, but not all of us hang out together all the time.”

“Mostly because it’s incredibly difficult to coordinate dates for nine people, and we all have a lot going on in our own lives.”

“Exactly – so, any questions?”

“Yeah – how the hell do you all even meet to get tangled up like this?”

“Oh, that’s a series of much longer stories. Richard?”

“Got the outline right here!”

[hua-fei-hua]

being Known as a fluff writer back in the day is so funny to me sometimes. like these people didn't even know that i was taking a physiology course at the time Just to write more accurate gore.

[scintillatingshortgirl19]

blehhh not them making a queer character say the no homo line :/