#they’re also relatively racist about their homophobia too

[softpastelqueer]

Seeing all of this news about the Monkeypox and seeing some people genuinely shocked they’re already blaming queer men/mascs for it, makes me feel a bit perplexed by the shock as if they didn’t legit blame queer men/mascs for COVID just last year and the year before

Any time there is a disease or contagion, queer men/mascs will be blamed 🤷🏻‍♂️

[briamichellewrites]

34

Mike the Shinoda. That made him laugh. Shinoda in Japanese means rice paddy. Mike the Rice Paddy. They laughed. The Backstreet Boys continued watching and observing Linkin Park working. Brian was interested in seeing what Mike was doing on the laptop. Bria was texting someone on her phone. Kevin. They were having a private conversation about meeting up to hook up. Wasn’t she dating Howie? They went on one date. That meant she could see him, right?

Relationships were so complicated. Did he ask her out again? Not yet. They decided to talk about it when they got back to her place. He also wanted to talk to her about Brian, his cousin. Though he was liberal, Brian was extremely conservative. He didn’t believe in gay marriage, abortion, or anything other than an all-American family.

He was aware that she had friends who were LGBT and Jewish. She also told him about her abortion after being diagnosed with cancer. He had compassion for her, though he knew that his cousin would have a lot of problems with it. Nick, A.J., and Howie were nothing like Brian. They argued over his political views. He looked over at him when they learned Phoenix was gay. There was nothing wrong with that. Brian had a problem with that, though he was trying to hide it.

“Now I want to adopt a kitten for Rascal to play with because Tiny and Garfield pretty much ignore him. They’re like teenagers who are being forced to babysit.”

“Bria, you’re turning into a crazy cat lady. One day, I’ll come over and I won’t be able to find you because your house will be filled with cats”, Mike joked.

“She’s annoying enough. We’ll find her”, Brad joked.

“Fuck you, asshole!”

He laughed. His parents and Elisa wanted him to invite her to celebrate Purim at their temple. What was that? It was a celebration of the rescue of Jews from annihilation in ancient Persia. Yeah, it sounded awesome. He reminded her she would have to wear a dress. She would do it for them. He thanked her with a laugh.

When she and Kevin got back to her place, they were greeted by the usual sounds of meowing. Human, you’re late! They went to the kitchen where the food was dispersed evenly. Three cats meant very loud meowing. They went into her bedroom and closed the door. He kissed her before sitting down on the bed. She stood in between his legs and took her shirt off. He let his hands feel her chest. This was going to be different. He could feel it.

A.J. was with Mike and Brad talking about Brian. They could tell he was uncomfortable. Yes, he told them about his political views. They didn’t align with the rest of the band and they argued over them. A.J. himself wasn’t gay because he loved women but he wasn’t the guy who people thought of as masculine. He was comfortable enough with himself not to care.

He apologized for not warning them. They accepted his apology, even though it wasn’t his fault. What were Bria’s views? She was what they would consider liberal. Bria didn’t believe in racism, homophobia, or discrimination of any kind. She also didn’t believe in religion, though she respected those who did and she was open to learning about different beliefs. When Brad lived with her, she was very interested in learning about Judaism.

She didn’t go to the temple with him because she was too sick, but she participated in different rituals with him and his family. Mike brought up how angry she had become when Paris made racist remarks. That was just the person she was. He was happy to hear that.

Bria had a subarachnoid hemorrhage, or bleeding in her brain. It was diagnosed after she was involved in a car accident. She and Kevin were driving home after going out to dinner when they were hit on the driver’s side. The force of the accident caused a blood vessel to burst inside her brain. Paramedics rushed to the scene and assessed the situation. They found her badly injured, with him being relatively okay. He had cuts and bruises but was otherwise unharmed.

The surgery was incredibly risky. They had to repair the broken blood vessels while being extremely careful not to cause major damage or complications. She was under anesthesia, so she didn’t feel anything. The surgery would take up to five hours to perform. Because they were working with her brain, there were chances she would need physical, occupational, or speech therapy.

If left untreated, she could die. Mike and Kevin had to decide to do it. It would be extremely difficult for her to recover, but she was a fighter. She survived cancer and she could survive this. Her other injuries were less severe. She had a broken leg, bruises, cuts, and a bruised heart. It was going to be very hard to see her. While they sat in the waiting room, they texted their band members. Mike also texted his parents. Just in case they wanted to come to the hospital.

Donna and Muto arrived with the other guys. Mike introduced his parents. It was nice to meet them. They then sat down. Kevin had a bandage on his forehead from where he was cut. Brian made sure he was okay. Yeah, he would be fine. Since he was also involved in the accident, he told them what happened. They were crossing through the intersection on a green light.

She was in the middle of the road waiting for the opposite car to turn when they were hit on the driver’s side. The force of the impact caused the car to turn to face the other direction. How fast was the other car going? He would guess they were going around a hundred miles an hour.

They were going the speed limit. If they hadn’t been wearing their seat belts, they both would’ve been thrown from the vehicle. Yikes. It sounded very serious. Muto wasn’t a doctor or neurologist, but it sounded like her brain likely bounced around in her skull. That did seem plausible. Donna asked about her cats. Mike had forgotten about them. Yeah, they would need to be fed. He didn’t have a house key. Would a neighbor let her in? He didn’t know.

“Sorry, my mind is…”

“Let me figure this out. You stay here with Bria.”

He sighed. “That would be great. Thank you.”

It took five hours before they were able to see Bria. Donna and Chester went back to her place. They were able to get in by calling the non-emergency number for the police. They came inside with them to make sure they were doing what they said they needed to do. They found the cat food. After it was distributed, they checked the litter box.

He cleaned it quickly before petting Tiny, Garfield, and Rascal. Thank you, human! They said goodbye to them before leaving. They thanked the police for letting them in. Since Bria was in the hospital, they would have to figure something out for the cats.

When they got back, Bria was still in surgery. A couple of hours later, they were all gathered in a conference room with the lead surgeon. The surgery had gone well. They were able to stop the bleeding. She would need to stay in the intensive care unit overnight. If she was doing well, she would be transferred to a regular hospital room.

She would need to stay in the hospital for twenty days for rehabilitation. Would she need therapy? That would be determined when she woke up. It was possible she would need physical, occupational, and speech therapy. There were complications because of the brain damage. Brad asked what they were. She might develop seizures, hydrocephalus, or fluid in the brain; a stroke or re-bleeding. They were going to assess her more thoroughly over the coming days.

@zoeykaytesmom @feelingsofaithless @alina-dixon @fiickle-nia

[trailerparkbubbs]

Anyways we should talk about the whole Lahey and Julian thing I guess.

There’s this common trope in tv where a male character will have a crush on another male character, make some kind of move on them or somehow show their attraction, get rejected, and then continue to harass the second character for the remainder of the show, all of which is played for laughs. Other notable examples of this are Dean Pelton harassing Jeff in Community and Mac harassing Dennis in It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, as well as non-sexual/romantic (but still very creepy and violating!) versions with Michael and Ryan from The Office and Charles and Jake from Brooklyn Nine Nine. All of these examples show different dynamics between the two characters involved, but all of them hinge on people laughing at one character harassing another long term.

Now, I like all of these shows, and I think that this trope can provide some funny moments, and it’s certainly not enough to condemn a show on its own. However, I also think that it’s kind of rooted in homophobia and misogyny to some extent – like, “Oh, our one token gay character is super creepy and has no sense of boundaries and is hopelessly in love with our straight, male protagonist!” but also “Harassment is funny when it’s two guys, right? Lol look at this guy getting sexually harassed, what a pussy, I’m sure he can just brush it off.” Not that any of these shows are outright trying to be homophobic or sexist, but that the way homophobia and sexism have shaped our societal perceptions is directly related to why we find these plotlines funny.

Another issue that amplifies the problem with this trope is when shows don’t have any other queer rep, or try to make the harasser a sympathetic character in order to make them into “valid queer rep” without addressing the ramifications of them being a harasser. Obviously this doesn’t apply in the case of B99 and The Office, but it does apply with IASIP* and Community. When a show only has one queer character, making that character a caricature-esque predator who harasses the straight, male protagonist really does more harm than good. When you try and round that character out without addressing the really horrible thing they’ve been doing for the whole show, it reads as playing off sexual harassment as a joke or not that big of an issue. Either way, not good.

*As far as IASIP goes, the characters are of course supposed to be terrible people, but that doesn’t put the show above criticism (and there are a lot of genuinely homophobic, sexist, and racist moments that can’t be ignored).

So, getting back to Trailer Park Boys. There are several queer characters, but most of them are “villains”, and for the characters who fluctuate, their queerness and villainy tend to go hand in hand – for instance, Barb finding out she’s interested in women, getting into a relationship with two women, and becoming a terrible person for the rest of the season, before breaking it off with said women and going back to normal. Lahey in particular is the major antagonist of the show – and while we see him having sympathetic moments, and we understand why he is the way he is, he remains generally an antagonist for the entire show. Lahey is drunk, delusional, powerhungry, and he hates Ricky, Julian, and Bubbles... except that he also has a crush on Julian which he makes no effort to contain.

This starts out with Lahey just saying Julian is “sexy” every once in a while, which basically every character on the show does at some point. This didn’t bother me at all – it’s funny when Lahey says it, but only because he’s usually saying it while actively working against Julian in some way, and often will say something like “You’re going to jail, you sexy bastard!”. Eventually, he starts making comments directly to Julian, and we get a talking head where Julian says he’s uncomfortable with the comments Lahey has been making, and that Lahey even tried to kiss him at one point. This is obviously pretty bad on Lahey’s part – trying to kiss someone who has made it clear that they don’t want to kiss you is a lot worse than simply saying they’re attractive – but still not too bad as far as this trope goes.

However, as this show does with everything, they soon take it up to eleven with Lahey coercing Julian into kissing him as part of a legal deal (before walking away at the last second), making a mannequin of Julian and taking a bath with it, and (outside of the actual show, but revealed in a liveshow/special so... you decide if it’s canon I guess) placing a hidden camera in Julian’s bathroom in the hopes of seeing him naked. Julian takes this mostly in stride, and is even able to throw Lahey out of the park directly following the whole mannequin/bath thing.

Trailer Park Boys does avoid some of the problems with this trope by making Lahey an antagonist rather than a sympathetic character, having other queer characters who aren’t predators, and having Julian clearly express his discomfort with the situation in a serious way, as well as making Lahey also have proper relationships with other characters, rather than just obsessing over Julian the whole time. However, it might have been nice for a show with so many queer characters to make at least a few of them (relatively) good people who aren’t actively trying to fuck over the protagonists, and to let the characters who do have sympathetic moments be queer and sympathetic simultaneously. Lahey is certainly not the worst example of this trope, and he’s a very funny character – but I think the trope of “predatory gay character being played for laughs” in general is homophobic, sexist, and something I could do without in the future.

[2ndblogg]

Hey! Just read your hot take on novel!wangxian and I absolutely agree. I'm gonna have to say here that I believe it boils down to the fetishization of homosexual men in a lot of the fandom culture that surrounds mlm shipping, as you said it's a space for a lot of women to experiment with their desires and whatnot, but I think therein lies the breaking points between reading novel!wangxian as a good, healthy relationship vs. reading it as a very flawed and toxic one. As an LGBT person, reading the way the author dealt with their relationship made me extremely uncomfortable, it just really feels like something that is written by someone who is more invested in using her queer characters for satisfying her and her reader's own pleasure than a well-built, strong relationship between two characters. Not to take away from the novel in some other aspects, I believe that novel!wwx is a much better, much more nuanced character than what he is in cql, but when it comes to wangxian, I think the intentions are very different for each of them. To each their own, I guess, but I do find it very troubling that some people in the fandom have a really hard time admitting that novel wangxian is not even remotely healthy.

Absolutely.

And can I just say how glad it makes me to see that not everyone is praising this book for it’s lgbt representation...

But I guess that’s also why I just occasionally feel the need to scream my frustrations into the void or try to make sense of the novel.

And why I try to be understanding and accepting of people’s opinion of the novel and not take it ‘personally’ (in the sense of sitting there thinking “holy shit this is how they view ME, this is what they think of ME” etc).

I was in fandoms back when they were really a place dominated by straight (homophobic) women and realism or lgbt representation wasn’t on anyone’s mind (and the occasional dude butting in to say that’s not how sex works or bottoming is experienced was ignored or told to get out). I experienced this change to fandoms being more of a lgbt space, of people becoming aware that media can shape your views of groups of people, of people becoming aware of their fetishizing of fictional gays vs. their prejudice against real life lgbt people etc.

And tbh MXTX just writes like one of those, she writes wangxian like everyone wrote their gay relationships around 2005 and earlier; clear power imbalance, clear roles and attributes that are divided into ‘manly’ and ‘feminine’, certain physical attributes (like the female self insert character aka the bottom being pretty and slight and weaker and shorter), men/the penetrating partner can’t really be raped so anything the woman/bottom tries isn’t really ‘bad’, the male love interest is forceful and self centered but ONLY because he’s so in love and since he’s emotionally stunted he has to express that through sex, men/tops NEED sex and it’s rude/mean to deny them that, the girl/bottom isn’t THAT horny or in charge of their own sexuality but wants to please their partner and what they really get out of it is the emotional aspect, decisions need to be made for them because the dude/top just knows better, the girl/bottom is childish and flirty and the guy/top suffers through it until he finally snaps and shows the girl/bottom who'sboss etc etc. (honestly homophobia and misogyny is so tightly knit in this kind of fiction, if it wasn’t so frustrating it would be very interesting).

Tbh I disagree with novel!wwx being more nuanced (despite a lot of ppl whose opinions I really respect also feeling this way), because I simply cannot seperate him from the wangxian relationship. All I see are tropes and stereotypes applied to make him ‘work’ in the context of the wangxian relationship instead of an actual personality...

To me, in CQL WWX is clearly the main character and you love his interactions with LWJ and want more of them and value them, wheras in the novel most of the time WWX plays second fiddle even when a scene should technically be about him and LWJ’s presence is incredibly suffocating, because he’s always being controlling or at the very least influencing WWX.

I also don’t feel like WWX has much of a character arc/growth. We’re essentially told he had one but the only thing that really actually changes is him hating himself a bit more and letting LWJ smash..., and I guess: he’s less independent than ever, he’s more isolated that ever...

I’ve called novel!wangxian a relationship between an abuser and his victim, because you can find evidence of that in the text. Not because I think the author wanted to portray an unhealthy gay relationship. Like you said, she was fetishizing and wrote for a similar crowd. But to me that ‘realization’ helped...I still don’t see how people can call it a masterpiece but I can at least understand hyping something you like up...

And like, badly written gay relationship or not; gay/straight,man/women, I see how people can find it hot. Exploring your sexuality through fictional characters isn’t necessarily a strictly straight girl phenomena. I probably have read fic that was exactly like this, I can’t judge anyone for it. But no one prints out the last PWP they read and goes, “this is ideal lgbt representation and nothing will ever be this good, the fact that it includes rape makes it so realistic” like????

(Is that part or an effect of the woke and purety culture? you can’t say ‘i like this book but it has flaws’ or ‘i’ve enjoyed this but it’s not up the feminism or lgbt acceptance that i preach/live’ so you have to pretend it’s flawless?)

And like, I do think novel!wangxian is a nightmare when it comes to lgbt representation and I do believe this is largely due to a cishet woman writing about gay men and fetishizing them (the fact that a lot of peoples arguments why novel!wangxian ‘is better’ boils down to ‘there’s kissing and sex’ is also pretty telling). And I am frightend and worried by some peoples response to it.

But is it really fair to see it as just that? It’s a problem sure, but that same thing happens in straight media (which I am admittedly not well versed in). Stephanie Meyer didn’t set out to write Edward Cullen to be a creep and non of the teenage girls that went crazy over him viewed it as such...Reylo fans (aside from some of them proclaiming Finn to be the real villain and saying it’s racist and misogynistic to not find Kylo Ren hot) found a way to view him threatening her as romantic and sexy, Loki fans that didn’t ship him with Thor usually fell into the camp of “he would be a perfect boyfriend” or “what if this OFC was his slave and he raped her everyday <3″... like ignoring/glorifying/romanticizing behaviours or exploring what kinks you might have through the safety of fictional characters and fictional settings isn’t JUST happening when it comes to ‘the gays’...

And not just specifically in fandom spaces either, a lot of ‘romantic’ movies include inappropriate touching, the boy/guy knowing better than the girl what she wants etc. And I absolutely do believe that that’s something that normalized these things for a lot of young girls and guys (I don’t want to get into this too much, I’ve really seen a change in the past few years, but before that it was pretty common for young boys to believe they need to keep pursuing and pressuring a girl that has said no, girls truly thought boys could die of blue balls, girls thought it was their duty as good girlfriends to let their boyfriends fuck them even when they weren’t in the mood, that they couldn’t talk about what they want in bed or what they don’t find enjoyable because ‘sex is for boys and girls get a relationship in exchange’ etc.).

And in much the same way movies have only relatively recently begun being called out for that, it’s also still pretty recently that they’re being called out for having their one queer coded character be a pedophile and a murder or whatever...Like, society as a whole becoming aware of these issues.

But do authors that publish their work with a specific target audience in mind have a responsibility to think about the effect it might have on them? (And I can already hear loud screams of ‘no way, it’s not your fault if your audience isn’t smart enough to understand that this bad thing is bad’, but I actually do believe in a way they do. That doesn’t mean you can’t or shouldn’t write whatever you want, just maybe take a look at HOW you bring your point across. (We do KNOW people are influenced by what propaganda they’re consistantly fed. I mean, you wouldn’t write a pro-drugs childrens book...) )

What if the author isn’t aware of their bias and prejudices? Or their target audience isn’t their actual audience?

And do we, society and media, judge female and male authors differently when it comes to romance and sex in fiction? (The answer is yes btw) But also, where do we draw the line at calling something ‘badly written’ and calling it toxic? Can it be both? As I’ve said before, a lot of people claim that only the physical intimacy scenes of novel!wangxian are bad, because they’re badly written and OOC, some say the book as amazingly written and only the wangxian relationship is bad because the author doesn’t know how to write gay men. In my ‘hot take’ I essentially said that’s not necessarily bad writing so much as it’s simply an (okay, unintentional) toxic relationship. And would this relationship still come across as toxic (or badly written, whichever you want) if we didn’t know the author to be a cishet woman? Or if a gay man had written it? (my personal, eloquent answer for this is: yes, but differently.)

Which was really all just a rambly way to get to my point of: it’s not just fetishizing of gay men, it’s also the homophobia and self-inserting in a safe situation.

You can literally replace WWX in the novel with a female character and it wouldn’t change a thing. The author takes such an effort into building up this power imbalance in every aspect of their life that if WWX were a heroine nothing would change in this (sexist/ancient society) setting.

(And clearly this is something that appeals to people if you look at the amount of female!WWX fics...)

Not even the sex scenes. There are maybe two allusions in all of them combined that WWX might also have a dick but like, you can’t be sure and it sure as hell doesn’t need stimulation.

(and again, that could be written as a kink...but it’s just not.)

CQL is a gay love story. MDZS at it’s core is none of that.

But I also very much agree with your ‘to each their own’, like here I am criticizing and trying to find explanations and whatever, but at the end of the day it doesn’t matter why someone might like (or write) a book like this, I vastly prefer CQL!wangxian but people have their own reasons for not doing so.

The ‘problem’ really only lies in, as you said, people not being able to accept that it’s not a healthy relationship. Or claiming it to be perfect lgbt rep.

And because my brain can’t shut up today:

I also can’t stop thinking that the way some people ‘glorify’ the book as due to their age and ‘inexperience’.

When I was a pretty young kid and got into fanfiction, there was nothing but completely OOC!whump to be found in the first two fandoms I was in. And I loved it. It was YEARS later that I thought I might like to read something with the characters being...in character. What I’m trying to say, in different stages and phases of your life you might enjoy different things, for different reasons...and obviously, in that moment, you won’t think about ‘what appeals to me here/should this appeal to me/etc’.

I don’t mean inexperience as ‘sexual inexperience’ here, though of course that could be part of it, but also like, inexperience with this genre (is this the first book like this you read, or did you just read 50 in a row that all had the same unhealthy vibes?), with lgbt people and issues (do you know any lgbt people or is your only image of them either the cute boy you can’t have and don’t want to see with another girl or grown men in full kink gear in front of children during CSD? and also: do you think ‘i like this’ and that’s the end of it or do you notice how many people idolize this objectively unhealthy relationship and won’t allow critique on it...)  

I...just wanted to say thanks really.

I just can’t stop rambling apparently and I know I mostly just repeated what you said or what I already said but in longer... I just really do feel very strongly about novel!wangxian and the perception of them and have actually at times felt very personally...worried/affected, by people’s acceptance and love of them and I just... have to try and make sense of it...

[greenandhazy]

I just put my finger on something I’ve felt for years and could never really put into words.

I tend to avoid fanfiction that deals with homophobia because it often feels really... cheesy. Like, there is ONE model of homophobia that people write, it is virulent, it is religious-based, it is absolute, and if it can involve a parent disowning their child, it will. And I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately because I’ve seen one or two Community fics where Abed’s father turns out to be a raging homophobe and I think it’s both OOC and kind of racist, given that 2/3 of the episodes where we see him involve him really, really trying to understand his son.

But I think there’s also a broader issue, which is that writing THAT model of homophobia foists the blame on a segment of the population that most writers are not a part of. Homophobia becomes primarily a religious issue, which makes RELIGION the problem, not broader societal ideas of nature and masculinity and sexual mores and all the many, many things that straight people still use to be homophobic even if they’re not heavily religious. Not all homophobia looks like a middle-aged woman spewing bible verses, and while many queer people undoubtedly do face that, for many of us and in many places that is not the dominant form of homophobia in our lives, and we shouldn’t be letting secular people off the hook like that. This is true for internalized homophobia, too. There are a looooot of reasons why people might struggle to accept their identity, and casting aside their parents’ idea of hell (and consequently their parents’ religion, because Smart Modern Young People don’t need religion) isn’t a cure-all.

And a secondary part of this is that it is very easy to cut off people displaying the shouting-and-crucifixes type of homophobia. You get the drama of the outburst and then the confrontation and then bam, move right along to the hurt/comfort. Again, is this life for some people? Sure. But I think one of the most consistent things about being gay is the negotiation, the less cut-and-dry cases that you have to wrestle with. What is “bad enough” to stop talking to someone? Your well-meaning aunt who can’t stop talking to you about every gay piece of media because she has Questions, and they get offensive but you know she means well and you only see her three times a year on holidays anyway—do you spend the mental energy to educate her, drop it entirely, or cut her off? If you do cut her off, how do you explain it to your mom and your cousins and your grandma—do you have the mental energy to explain it to them over and over again, and are you prepared to cut them off too? Your dad who is clearly uncomfortable around your partner but is still loving whenever you’re alone with him, your sister whose getting married and wants you to not bring your partner to her wedding because she doesn’t think she can reign in her fiancé’s conservative relatives, your friend who makes uncomfortable jokes and promises they’ll get better when you confront them but relapses a few months later, etc etc.

The truth is, you probably don’t get to stop dealing with everyone who says something homophobic to you. (And sometimes you can’t, like your boss or your landlord.) Sometimes you let the minor shit go, because you can live with it and save your energy for more worthy battles, or sometimes because it’s honestly so petty and stupid that at least you get a laugh out of it. And y’all know I will fight for queer religious people until I am blue in the face. There are LGBTQ Jews, Muslims, Christians, Hindis, Sikhs, Buddhists, etc, and we alone get to decide how we deal with homophobia in our traditions, and many of us can and do navigate religious spaces without the help of well-meaning secular Americans. Stop assuming our identities are mutually exclusive and we need to choose one or the other—and for that matter, that we would make the same choice as you.

These are the more complicated issues, and I get why people might not want to delve into them every time, but... yeah. They feel more real to me, and also happen to be more realistic for a lot of fiction—I couldn’t even tell you the number of nonreligious characters I’ve seen made religious for the sake of a dramatic fic about homophobia, or on the other hand the number of probably-not-woke characters made Perfectly Woke because well they’re nice and secular so why would they be homophobic? Anyway. None of this is new but, I’m thinking about it especially because my ship of the moment features an Arab character and a black character, so this lack of subtlety carries an extra cringe factor.

[replicantdeviancy]

☠ What does someone have to do for an instant unfollow from you?

                         @murdcck | the salty af munday meme | Accepting

Oh, man... This one is both difficult & easy to answer, & a little extra. I mean, we all have our own tolerances & there are some things that just make us go ‘Wow, you really did that’. Personally, I have a pretty high tolerance for bullshit, given the nature of my job irl. I’m used to some very choice things coming out of people’s mouths & I’ve worked with all walks of life on both sides of the liberal-conservatives divide, so I’ve seen a fair share of things. But I have my hard limits.

One things I have concluded is that racism is never okay (Yes, against white people as well. Racism is racism. Don’t be a bigot. Skin color & origin don’t matter. It’s the individual that matters, & if the individual is a piece of shit, look to their upbringing & environment instead of their melanin levels for blame). If I find out someone is a racist they’ll be missing a follower. 

The next is any kind of phobia against the LGBTQ+ (OOC obviously. Characters are exempt so long as it’s in character). I understand criticisms & again, each individual is different, but being anti gay, trans, or queer of any kind is a really bad look. Especially homophobia or transphobia (I have a little story under the cut if you care to look). 

Also, if you blatantly do not read or respect my rules. This one is very crucial, as I have crafted them to help with my anxiety & my personal discomforts.

The next is being an extremist or fascist. I’m too old & too tired to be seeing that brand of crazy on my dash & it makes me pretty darn anxious. I’m just here to write & make friends with awesome people. Thus far I’ve done a relatively good job of that, & I’d like to keep that positivity going.

Oh,& lying. I don’t mean about silly little things. I mean straight up lying to my face or to people about me. Not cool, bro.

Storytime: tw;transphobia. No URLs, fandoms or any identifiers will be used.

While I was in the very early stages of dipping into a new fandom for a crossover type scenario I came upon a blog for a character I’d have personally liked to write with. This person followed back, I sent a couple memes. Everything was peachy keen. I anticipated they would want to write with me, as most do when they’re mutuals, in theory. I reached out with the intent to plot something out & we got talking. They were familiar with Detroit: Become Human & my characters, which was a plus. I thought I had been rather fortunate. They wanted more information on my Connor’s human verses, so I linked them the current synopsis I had going. Immediately they began policing why my Connor was transgender &, as one might expect, my heartrate & anxiety instantly spiked.

I was appalled. They began grilling me on whether or not I was trans & the like. That’s incredibly disrespectful & honestly, it’s nobody’s god damn business what I am. No self-respecting individual would push someone to out themselves as non-cis & quite frankly, anyone who does is an asshole. I’ll make a side note here & state that it hadn’t been my original intention to make Connor transgender. He simply developed that way. That was where his character was most comfortable & that’s how he became. At the time this individual claimed to be trans as well as their partner, of which, frankly, I think was a falsehood to keep themselves from sounding like a massive transphobe. I can’t prove it & I want nothing to do with them, so I’ll keep my theories. I want to make it clear that this is only my opinions & not necessarily factual, only a reasonable conclusion drawn from the context of our conversation.

Next they had stated they don’t let their character have sexual relations with trans characters, which, again, is very skeevy. It was claimed it triggers them, but again, I have my doubts on their claims. That’s all I will say on that. Regardless & transphobic sentiments aside, this proves they also did not look at my rules as I very, very clearly state I absolutely under no circumstances (unless I really know/trust you & am comfortable & even then it’s a grey area) will ever write smut on this blog. Ever. I am a sex-repulsed asexual & I know my limits on tolerance. The insinuation alone that I was only there for a sexual ship was egregiously upsetting.

At the time I did not immediately block as I needed a moment & they had put my stressed arse on the defensive. But I lost sleep over it (I also had something else very stressful going on) & so I wrote a firmly worded statement about their behavior & asked them to do better in the future, as well as reevaluate themselves from within, before blocking them for my personal comfort & safety. It was a gross & upsetting encounter, & I’m so, so glad that I’ve never encountered someone like that before or since in my time on tumblr. My time here has, for the most part, been incredibly rewarding & pleasant experience. I like to keep things positive here. The real world is crazy enough right now.

[tirsynni]

For a culture which brags about its empathy and understanding, Tumblr is very specific about what it empathizes with and understands.

This post is in no way defending white supremacists, Nazis, etc. Because that’s where everyone’s mind jumps: if you are discussing certain types of brainwashing and cultural mindsets, everyone jumps to the worst offenders and ask if I’m defending them. No. Seeing where they’re coming from does not in anyway negate their actions. If anything, it enforces the understanding that they are dangerous and they are going to be that way for a long time because that need for self-importance is such a part of their identity, they will literally kill to defend it.

But this post is about the littler people. A popular complaint that comes up when dealing with assholes is “Why can’t they just educate themselves? The internet is right there!”

Fantastic. To do that, you have to ask the right question. Sometimes, you need to be brave enough to ask any question.

Imagine spending day-in and day-out surrounded by a specific culture preaching specific things. Constantly. You get it in direct conversation, you get it in implications, you get it in media, etc. In communities lacking diversity, there are few external pushes to question. When you try, the backlash is immediate, hostile, and personal. There’s nothing wrong with the community: there’s something wrong with you. You want your friends? You want your family? You’ll suck it up and be quiet and conform.

For some people, this works. They create themselves a comfortable world in this. It’s a small world, but they feel confident in it. They know themselves, they know their immediate surroundings, and thus they feel they understand worlds they’ve never seen. To question it shakes the foundation of their world: their identity, their pride, everything. Many of these people already feel unsteady about many things and deny it to hell and back. They need that confidence, need to feel they understand their world. 

Other people escape as soon as they can. I did. My uncle did. I know people who tried but discovered the world out there was too different and terrifying and while they hated their old world, it was known and comfortable. Other people who escape never look back.

As much as I wish it was something as simple as “Racism can be defeated by being involved on the internet!” that isn’t the case. Homophobia, sexism, heteronormativity, etc. These things are ingrained in cultural identities and personal identities. I have a cousin, intelligent, sweet, overall pretty awesome, who is so immersed in the cultural brainwashing that when she was asking questions about abortion, it wasn’t to be offensive or hateful or anything: she just didn’t know better and was trapped in a culture which promoted false information and a hate of proper education. Her questions is awful but from a place of sincerely wanting to know more. She had no idea that her information was terrible.

Also, keep in mind that a good chunk of this nastiness comes from higher levels. There are far too many groups who profit from keeping poor people at each other’s throats, at keeping people uneducated, at keeping people ignorant, at keeping people distracted, etc. There are barriers in place, solid barriers years in the making, and many of these people aren’t evil: they’re just being fucked in un-fun ways.

So stop bashing people who lack necessary tools and education. Stop bashing people because they aren’t “woke.” I’m not saying go out and befriend racist assholes. I’m not saying defend homophobic or transphobic words. I’m not saying tolerate sexist bullshit. But stop sweeping large groups of uneducated, ignorant people as evil. Stop bashing them because they needed something to make it personal -- like their daughter coming out as gay -- to start expanding their worlds. I know a lot of people will automatically respond “But I did! I was raised in that environment and I still got out!” and good for you! Excellent! Now stop bashing the people who for some reason or another couldn’t get out. 

Don’t tolerate hate and ignorance but don’t unnecessarily spread hatred and ignorance, either. If you want to hate, do it deliberately and knowingly (hey, Nazis, go fuck yourself) but understand a lot of people are coming from a place of cultural brainwashing, not malice. If you don’t want to spend compassion on these people, cool! Just...walk away. That’s all. Just walk away. I will never, ever promote the concept that the burden should be on the victim instead of the abuser.

This rant is from a queer, childfree woman who thought for years that having a kid was mandatory, that there was anything straight about her, and still regularly argues with her conservative relatives who ask why she can’t just grow up and that she’s going to die alone because she doesn’t have kids. I’m still educating myself and I’m still ready to fight misinformation...and certain people just because.

[relaxandlaughatyourself]

Recap of Ika’s IG LIves August 25, 2018.

Ika was getting ready and did two lives totaling about two hours. Several people showed up in them, including Swaggy, Erica, Amina, Dem, Zakiyah and Josh.

She apologizes for neglecting us. She says that her and Dem recorded a video but it got deleted, so they will not post a video today. They’re going out tonight so they’ll do a video of them getting ready and chit chatting and stuff and post it tomorrow. They didn’t want to redo the video they did because then it would seem too fake. They don’t want to do something fake just to put something out, they always want to be real.

The videos aren’t always saved on both their camera and on his phone.

Dem is at an open house. He left her his car if she wanted to go out, she may go to Sephora at the mall. She did buy a new foundation yesterday and she thinks she likes it.

Mentions she cut her clip ins. When she makes them she uses glue, she doesn’t sew them.

She says that she’s wearing Dem’s sweatshirt and she always wears it when getting ready because it’s so comfortable.

Discusses BB20, and the HGs. She thinks it’s a good season.

After her interviews, her pick to win was Tyler, and it still is.

Wishes there wasn’t a battleback, wants it to be finale already.

Angela, not the biggest fan of her, doesn’t get her, why she was so mean to Rachel.

Sam confuses her, too many personalities.

 Kaycee, she thinks she is playing a decent game, but it’s not fun to watch. Not a bad game, but not good, she’s too unaware that Tyler is playing them.

JC, she doesn’t think he is playing a good game.

Haleigh, she thinks she is genuinely one of the best women role models she has seen on BB in a very long time. She is a good person, and the person she is shines through the game. She notes that Haleigh was her last interview and both were tired;  Ika didn’t get to see who she really was, she came off as blah. But she is wowed by her now.

Fessy… takes her a while to find the words for him lol. Someone says he’s special and she agrees. She’s confused as to why he put Scottie on the block when he knew others were def were not with him.

Brett, she likes him, thinks he’s funny and wouldn’t mind a Brett win.

Expands about Fessy. She says she knows some say he was jealous. She says that when she’s been with Dem there’ve been girls who have crushes on him, but she’s not jealous because she didn’t feel threatened. She doesn’t think Fessy should’ve felt threatened by Scottie because he should have trusted Haleigh. You can only be jealous of the people who can steal your guy/girl, you can’t be jealous of everyone. She said if she got jealous of every girl who gave Dem attention or had a crush on him she’d be sick. Being jealous is normal, she’s felt some type of way before, it’s real but you can’t go crazy.

Says the prejury people have been really entertaining, moreso than those in the house. There is so much messiness happening with them. Mentions Rachel and Winston, says Kaitlyn needs to humble herself.

Talks about if she is asked back for finale interviews, what questions she will ask the HGs, including asking the prejury about their twitter antics.

Talks for a while about what Bayleigh’s sister Bre tweeted yesterday and her response. Says that what Bre tweeted and the song she put out is dangerous. There are a lot of people who do not have a grasp on who they are yet, they are struggling and trying to love themselves, but then this woman is telling them that they are wrong and they can fix themselves; that is not okay because you’re telling people that they shouldn’t love themselves and they can be cured, but there is nothing to cure, that is a horrible message. Ika also says that she did and will clock those who are saying that is Bre’s truth and opinion. She said what if Dem stopped dating her and created a video saying that dating outside your race is wrong and he was cured of it and God saved him from an interracial relationship, that would be incredibly racist and awful. Just because it is about homosexuality, it is wrong too. People fight racism very hard, homophobia needs to be fought too. There are a lot of people who are struggling with this, and hearing this is damaging to them. Bayleigh is not responsible for what her sister said and does and she’s not part of it.

Ika says she only argues when she knows she’s right. When she’s wrong she’ll just be quiet.

Last night they were at the grocery store and this guy in front of them was giving the cashier a really hard time and was not giving up. So they were taking their stuff to go to another line when the cashier, in the middle of arguing with the guy, was like “are you youtubers?” to Dem and Ika. Dem told her yes, and she said that she saw one of their videos in the recommended section. Ika was so happy someone recognized them from youtube and not BB, it was so weird and funny to hear that.

She says that she loves some youtube couples, but others come off fake. You can tell when pranks are fake and such. Dem and her never could do that.

Her phone died so she restarts another live. Asks what other people are doing today.

Mentions that her and Dem are going out later, they haven’t gone out in so long. When they’re shooting videos, that’s not going out, they’re thinking about what to get for content and they’re not totally focusing on each other. Tonight they’re not going to do any filming while out or anything and she can’t wait for it.

Ika says that her and Dem are still getting to know each other, even though they spent months together in the house with nothing to do but get to know each other. But they’re still learning about each other. She thinks Dem just truly realized Ika has a hard time letting things go, things not necessarily directed toward him, it can be anyone or anything. She says it’s not a grudge really, it’s different. Dem can get over things very easily.

She adds Dem. He’s at his open house and had one person so far, he has a couple more hours left. He said he’s been watching her and she’s keeping him entertained. She mentions that she’s drinking his juice and he said that he was going to have it when he got home but apparently not now. She says he can touch the clip ins, but not the wig. He mentions when it shifted that one day he couldn’t believe it. He then leaves because he’s scared someone is going to walk in.

Ika then asks the viewers for their most embarrassing stories, she says embarrassing things always happen to her.

Says she should take his car for a joy ride. She bets he’s still watching so she says she’ll mess it up by going through mud puddles and making it dirty. She does say she is kinda scared of driving his car because something will happen. Someone asks her if she likes the new car and she says “Oh, it’s okay” as a joke because she knows he’s watching; he comments “you are a petty little person.” She says that Dem says he loves her more than his cars but she’s not sure.

Last night she asked him for a footrub and the quality of the footrub had her questioning the relationship. She says how do you tell someone that they’re your whole world and you’ll do anything for them but give them a mediocre footrub with one hand?

Ika talks more about how she doesn’t know how to let things go. She’s tried to have Dem teach her, but she can’t do it. She says it’s not constantly bothering her every day, but if she’s reminded of it somehow, or sees the person, it’s brought back up and so are the feelings. She says sometimes deep down she thinks she’s over it, but then she finds out later she’s not really, it just comes up because something triggered it. Gives an example of Sindy. She did some shady stuff to her in real life and Ika did act fake nice toward her. But when she was sent videos from the house of her acting thirsty toward Dem it all really came up again. She was being fake toward her because she forced herself to be the bigger person, she wanted to like her. She learned from that and truly realized she doesn’t know how to be the bigger person so if she has to do that she has to be fake and she doesn’t like being that way.

Talks of being fake vs cordial vs just pretending the person doesn’t exist. She’d rather just pretend the person doesn’t exist, but with some people, such as Dem’s friends/relatives/people close to him, it’ll create more drama if she ignores them, so she has to be cordial. She doesn’t want to be forced to forgive people or be the bigger person. Dem asked her to do that one time not realizing how much it would actually hurt her. He has since vowed to never ask her to do that again because it really did affect her. She is fake sometimes, if you see her being cordial to someone who has wronged her, she is being fake. She prides herself on being real, but she does have to be fake sometimes.

Time runs out so it ends.

[antifainternational]

The #Nov4 That Never Was

(Alex Jones’ fevered mind: the internet version). 2017 has been a strange year for antifa.  Up until this  year, people opposed to fascists, white supremacists, and other bigoted extremists have been left to do their important work in relative obscurity, doing what needs to be done to make their communities safe by confronting and opposing white supremacist losers.  That, of course, all changed when the U.S. elected a president that ticks off more than a few boxes on the list of fascist characteristics.  

Suddenly, racism and bigotry - even it its most extreme forms - has now become more acceptable in the U.S. and, to a lesser extent, around the world.  The U.S. election opened the floodgates for bigots of all kinds to crawl out from under their rocks and publicly declare their xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia, Islamophobia, etc. as it if was something to be proud of. Very quickly, it became apparent who was best-positioned to challenge this and fight back.  And it wasn’t mainstream liberals.  Antifa’s numbers and support boomed overnight as we demonstrated on the streets time and time again that our strategies and tactics are what works at stopping white supremacist organizers dead in their tracks - putting ourselves on the line to protect our communities and shut down the fash.

(Dr. Cornel West on what happened when he joined a group of liberals who were confronted by fascists in Charlottesville.  Read more about that incident here).  Fascists & their supporters recognize this, too.  Which is why antifascists around the world have faced unprecedented levels of harassment, doxxing, abuse, and violence this year.  The stabbing of three anti-fascists in Portland by a white supremacist “free speech activist,” leaving two dead; the murder of Heather Heyer and attempted murder of 19 others in a white supremacist terror attack in Charlottesville being just two of the most recent examples.  

Fascists and their collaborators have gone to incredible lengths in their attempts to smear and slander their anti-fascist opponents.  It’s now standard practice for them to straight-up lie to their followers whenever a white man commits a violent atrocity in America by claiming the attacker was “antifa.”  Rather than questioning the outright falsehoods they’re being fed, the bigots try to out-do each other in coming up with ever-more implausible falsehoods to defame antifa. This all culminated in the #Nov4 hoax perpetuated by the alt right & their cronies.  As documented by this article published in a credible news source, a call-out for a protest against Trump/Pence from a relatively-marginal Maoist front group was picked up by white supremacists, who then started making incredulous claims about this planned protest being part of a nefarious conspiracy by a nonexistent antifa “organization,” to launch a civil war.   If you thought that people who had been lied to about pizzagate and Jade Helm and FEMA death camps would, by now, realize that they were being lied to and perhaps stop listening to those liars or questioning their motives (e.g. amassing a fortune by selling toxic, lead-tainted “nutritional supplements” to their paranoid, duped followers), then you would have sadly overestimated the willingness of some to be made fools of again and again and again.  Instead, the alt right audience seemed to try to out-do each other in coming up with increasingly implausible scenarios based on zero evidence:

Here’s what didn’t happen on #Nov4: anything that the racist right wing claimed was going to happen.  There was no revolution; antifa didn’t attack anybody; white parents were not dragged into town squares and beheaded.  What also didn’t happen: none of the white supremacist trolls admitted that they were lying or wrong about #Nov4.  Instead, they claimed that their side “won,” which one of our followers commented as akin to “when a kid you don’t even like challenges you to a race and you tell him “nah, I’m drinkin juice.” So he runs across the playground and declares himself the winner while you ignore him. Then he screams about it for the rest of recess trying to get you to pay attention to him b/c hes mad that you’re not mad.”  But here’s what did happen that weekend: 

The Islamophobes of Britain First attempted to hold a rally in London and were woefully outnumbered by antifa opposition.

Neo-nazis scheduled a rally in Toronto, then failed to turn up to their own rally when 100+ antifascists showed up to make it clear they weren’t welcome and wound up having their own antifa party instead.

Glasgow’s Red Front Republic showed up to confront a neo-nazi rally on George Square, causing *both* neo-nazis to leg it (do two people = a “rally,” though)? And yes, even the people at Refuse Fascism - the ones who called for protests against Trump on November 4th - held events in multiple cities in the U.S. without incident, as they had intended.   Bottom line: #Nov4 taught us that the bigots & their collaborators are going to continue to lie to their followers about us and do whatever they can think of to libel antifa, in the hopes of creating their own Reichstag Fire moment.  This = proof that they recognize us as their fiercest opposition and their biggest obstacle to their “ethno-states,” genocide, etc.  Far better that we’re the ones targeted by inhuman, racist swine than they go after their traditional targets - ethnic and religious minorities, racialized people, migrants, people with disabilities, LGBTQ+ people, etc. (although, of course, people from all those categories are well-represented within antifa itself).   We’re ready for them.  We can handle their shit and pay it back in spades, just as we have for the last 90+ years .  And on the weekend that they vowed to stop a violent “antifa” uprising they dreamed up in their own twisted minds and fed to each other, we were the ones on the streets, doing what we always do - exposing, opposing, and confronting the forces of hatred.

[janiedean]

@nederys all of you guys kinda lost your shit but i don't think you're being consistent at all. you didn't go for it being misinformed or wrongly placed, just that it was "gross" bc it was "romanticizing" blabla, like if someone made a fic about ETA terrorists or whatever and i advocated censorship and asked for it not to exist. when you accept kink and RPF, you need to stand on that principle even when it's YOUR personal/national. shaming ppl into submission is the anti strategy and it doesnt actually convince anybody of anything, much literally if it's screaming in another language to the OPs. i didnt wanna reblog or anything but i was very unpleasantly surprised with how you guys handled the situation (and i say this bc i care and i know you value rationality, not to piss you off YOUR personal/national sensibility like if someone wants to write a fic 'romanticizing' tec bundy murders or a rape fantasy or whatever it's their field day just tag it properly, it's no different for a criminal organization as i see it. a piece of sexual fantasy or literary work is not a guarantee it's portrayed in an accurate way or that it's a moral endorsementj + I'll hear your argument on 'positive representation' so i'll take your word for now but it did really come of like "your evil porn is romanticizing evil irl so it should be censored". as for the bad taste etc thing - as long as the person in question doesn't find out i dont personally see the harm. other ppl getting second-handed distastefulness/offense about it is a slippery slope, bc again that quickly devolves into "ugh why you write about rape! / rpf! if you can write kink porn and you can do rpf (like i mean, what, we just tweak the hair color and the initials to make it 'fictional'?) - it follows you can write "distasteful" kink porn about rpf all you want. it's still fiction.okay in order

In order:

as I said in the other reply, people lost their shit because we’ve had this discussion for years and every time it happens SOMEONE (most likely american but not necessarily) shows yup informing us that since mafia in US english means generally organized crime and not THAT specific organized crime we need to chill and WHO CARES YOU’RE OVERREACTING. at some point there’s a limit to how much nice you can be when you’ve been trying nicely for years and people just dismiss you most likely also because you’re not poc enough to complain - again, when it happens with people who can fall into the POC definition doing this kinda stuff automatically means you’re racist, but with us it’s not even disrespectful? or recognized as potentially harmful? fine, we lost our shit, but it’s also not the first time it happens;

the point isn’t that they were making a fic about the mafia, but if we take the ETA terrorism similitude, it wasn’t ‘making a fic abut ETA’. it was, ‘we are making an RPF fic where we take a real living spanish actor who has a friend who died during an ETA bombing and we make him the commander of an ETA faction which plants a bomb in madrid’. I’d find it distasteful if it was about FICTIONAL CHARACTERS, but whatevr - it’s fictional. real people who are actually involved with those criminals on the other side? not so cool. and the fact that these people see nothing wrong with casting them as criminals for *the mafia* shows they have no idea of what they’re talking about and again, with fictional people you can try to ignore it (even if it irks me also because 90% of the time it shows a total failure of understanding the character just by casting them as mafiosi but never mind that’s my pet peeve), but real ones? who made a pro lgbt movie and are *allies* when a mafia killing actually was what kickstarted the creation of the hugest and first anti-homophobia/pro-gay lgbtq association in italy? like. that’s fucking with real people and honestly if I was the director and knew I’d feel personally slandered especially if I come from someplace where statistically everyone knows someone who’s been hurt by the mafia in the last fifty years if they weren’t themselves. like I had a friend whose father worked for the police and the antimafia division especially and lived in palermo back in the day and criminals did try to grab her out of her pre-school and they had to change cities VERY quickly after that, and I don’t even live in sicily. and she’s not even sicilian. it was twenty years ago when they planted bombs across the entire area and killed hundreds of people just in the 90s (comprehensive list). it’s not just WRITING FIC ABOUT THE MAFIA, which I could be relatively handwaving with if it was about fictional people and even then it irks me to hell and back, but real people? who make movies pro things that the mafia hates? really? and I have to hear ‘are you angry because you’re homophobes’? I don’t ask for it NOT TO EXIST, I’m asking a basic modicum of decency.

ted bundy vs mafia: ted bundy is ONE person and he’s been convicted and whatever. if someone’s personal fantasy is fucking ted bundy WHATEVER their problem. if THEY want to do the self-insert with real criminals whatever, idgi but if they’re aware of the implications whatever. the mafia is a bunch of people and they thrive on positive media representation and it’s such large scale that it fucks with this entire country on multiple levels (ad also other countries) and here you’re not using real criminals, you’re casting as criminals people who most likely have been hurt by that same organization. it’s a difference. and if you portray it as a nice organization where hey you help people bypassing the law and gay people are accepted it’s... just... not how it works.

rpf: I’m generally pro rpf as long as people don’t go to the actual real people and don’t harass them irl (which would make a lot of rpf shippers inappropriate) but like... idk if you were around in spn fandom at the time of the infamous j2 haiti fic, but if you weren’t, tldr: person sees the aftermath of the haiti earthquake on tv, thinks ‘well that’d make a perfect setting for my j2 bigbang fic’, writes an entire fic where jared and jensen go to haiti the month it happened, her artist makes art for it photoshopping those two over like... real pictures of real dead people and three betas don’t find nothing remotely cringy in this concept. the fic gets published. it gets slandered to hell and back and while I didn’t agree on assuming the author was a pre-trump (she most likely had no idea that stuff was kindaaa racist) and that she should have been educated, I’d like to presume that people would think thrice before setting a Romance Story TM on a background where when it was published people were still excavating corpses from the rubble. it’s about the same concept as the romantic mafia fic. but with the haiti fic anyone on tumblr would agree that it’s hardly appropriate, with mafia fic it’s just ‘meh shut up you’re whining’. also, while I do agree that jared and jensen, as famous people, signed up for this, too, I don’t really think using real people for this kind of thing is fair, educated or a favor to them. I get it’s all fantasy and so on, but at least use the fictional characters. I can imagine j2 wouldn’t be happy with knowing noncon fic where they’re protagonists exists, neither with the haiti fic, but the noncon is standard fandom kink and whatever and no one else is involved, the haiti fic DOES. and while the people in those pictures wouldn’t even know, if that’s what you jerk off to at least be aware that it’s not exactly tasteful. and the people mentioned had zero idea that jerking off to the *mafia* au is not tasteful and that the *mafia* is *not* random organized crime. no one would have a problem if they called them CRIMINALS or mob or whatever without using the specific mafia word, but they like it because AESTHETICS which 90% of the time aren’t even true because the godfather aesthetic is so NOT the camorra aesthetic it’s not even funny. and of course we shoudl educate people instead, too bad that if it’s about haiti they listen and if it’s about us, they don’t;

 kink: same as above but like, again, let’s always use the poor j2 guys. the j2 mafia au as above is absolutely ew to me but at least j2 are american and most likely didn’t grow up somewhere the mafia could kill their relatives or friends. guadagnino did. and whether he knows or not (HOPEFULLY HE NEVER FINDS OUT) it’s another level of disrespectful to take a guy who made a pro lgbt movie you liked and putting him in that scenario without being aware of it. and they don’t listen if you tell them. that’s the problem. I can be very tolerant, but good god at least hear people out on the subject. and if it concerns a situation that isn’t even old or a dead organization but one that’s thriving in the country still and fucks people over every day I’d like for these people to recognize that at least it’s something not cool and not just their jerk off fodder material. at this point do the GODFATHER AU, which is what they want anyway, stick with the american mafia and try to not give them positive rep, because this idea of the mafia as a cool thing plays a major role in actual mafia organization marketing themselves as a good thing and makes the work of people actually fighting them way harder. if no one thought it was cool, it wouldn’t have half the influence it has. but do I ever see mafia aus with cops or conflicted henchmen or the likes? nah. it’s all SAD ROMANTIC BACKSTORY WITH CRIMINALS. call it some other way. it’s not asking that much.

also: I am entirely down with mafia stories in media and stuff - again, I ove my sopranos and boardwalk empire and goodfellas and I actually do like the godfather when a lot of people here at this point hate it too, but none of those things make it look like it’s palatable to be in the mafia. people can jerk off to it I suppose, but at least they should be aware of that. lowering the bar, it’s why I get pissed at people passing jc as a healthy nice relationship - at least own up to your badwrong and don’t sugarcoat it. in this case they don’t even own up to the fact that it’s a real thing that hurts real people, never mind caring for the feelings of the people they’re fans of - I could jerk off to my rpf faves in anything but I’d like to know I’m not doing it to something they would loathe, and if you have to at least use the fictional characters as the jerk-off material. I mean I’d feel uncomfortable af using them as jerk-off material to something I know they as people would hate. obviously I’m pro write whatever you want, but I’m also pro ‘be aware of what you’re doing and know you’re possibly jerking off to things that are actually harmful to a lot of people and if you do and are cool with that whatever but at least try to not make it look as it’s a good thing’ while at the same time assuming that someone who tells you it’s not cool is doing it because they’re HOMOPHOBES when the mafia is the most homophobic organization in existence or close to it. we do need positive rep when it comes to mafia stories and we never get it.

like, final example: if I had seen one ‘steve rogers is a cop who wants to take down the mafia-like organization’ for every ten ‘tiny boss steve rogers and his russian henchman bucky are THE POWER COUPLE OF THE NY CRIME SCENE AND THEY KISS IN FRONT OF EVERYONE AND HELP THE WEAK WHEN THE POLICE SUCKS ASS’ fics I ran into it’d be lovely, but the point is that I’ve never seen one such fic even if it’s a lot more IC for steve rogers to take down criminals than being a criminal, and if you make people notice that nicely (which we did more than once) the usual answer is ‘go fuck yourself it’s just aesthetics the mafia doesn’t hurt anyone’ when it actually did, does and will do as long as they have means to, and since this recasting of canonically good characters as *mafia* henchmen who are happy to be there and not itching to get out just really makes pass the concept that the mafia isn’t really that bad I think I/we affected people have the rights to point out that it’s already a distasteful thing that people should at least read about before assuming it’s random organized crime that can be substituted for whichever worldbuilding they like, and if they don’t care for that fine, at least avoid involving real people who actually would loathe that irl in it or, if anything, at least recognize that it’s fucked up to hell and back. and none of the people in that thread had the grace to do that.

I mean, obviously if I had to take the choice between one such fic not existing at all but censoring stuff and it existing without censoring stuff I’d pick the latter even if I absolutely don’t like it, but what irks me and the other people involved in this debate is how nonchalantly people do these recasting assuming that they’re not romanticizing the thing (which they’re doing) and then don’t listen to others when they’re pointed out that they’re doing it and they should be aware.

like, again, I think the haiti fic was a thing that no one with some salt in their brain and a basic amount of decency should have published. someone did. they got criticized for it and it sprung a lot of discussion (including comparing it with a gen kill fic set in east timor during the war which actually did it right and so no one actually thought it was exploiting a tragedy or being in bad taste) and tbh I think that when doing fic about serious things you should at least read up on that. but the point is that these people don’t listen, haven’t listened for years and most likely will keep on not listening and sorry but seeing a person from palermo who shoots movies that would make any cosa nostra boss mad being recast as a cosa nostra/mafia sicilian boss who, if compared to a, uh, real life person who died recently would deal with people seceding from this organization by ordering to kidnap their children and have them dissolved in acid at the ripe age of nine is really goddamned distateful and hearing ‘so your problem is that they’re gay is that why you’re so angry’ as a response instead of reading it and thinking ‘damn maybe that was a bit out of line’ isn’t exactly that great.

especially because again, these organization thrive on people assuming they’re less bad than they actually are and we’re not talking about stuff that happened three hundred years ago - the kid dissolved in acid happened in 1996 and it’s hardly the last time something like that happened. it’s not a general crime organization, it’s a very specific one, and I’ll be fine with people jerking off to any italian stereotype in existence while I roll my eyes and be fine with it, but at least I’d like these people to know what they’re doing. and they aren’t. and they should be. and on top of that some positive rep where the mafia people are inherently bad and the good guys want to take them down would be nice. I do get that it looks like I’m being incoherent but I’m not saying they can’t do it, I’m saying they should show a minimum of consideration, and they aren’t. then no one’s stopping them from doing it of course but just the fact that they-won’t-listen kind of says a lot. :/ and when it comes to real people and real things it’s not just fiction and you should at least be aware of that.

[rtarara]

On Supergirl and Homophobia

I am seeing a lot of posts saying how calling out what happened at SDCC as homophobic is ‘ridiculous’. I’d like to address first the scope of what homophobia is, then move onto how the incident was driven by homophobia. 

Definitions:

When you hear the term homophobia, it conjures up images of assault or of slurs being thrown out in the open. This is often not the case. Incidences of homophobia can range from the above to smaller instances that make you question whether of not you’re being ‘hysterical’ or ‘dramatic’ for thinking you’re being discriminated against or not. Merriam-Webster defines homophobia as: irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against homosexuality or homosexuals. 

An example that I have in my own life is that my conservative Christian relatives often ‘forget’ to call and invite me to gatherings. Another is that they will avoid any talk saying I’m married. In these cases, it falls under aversion for not wanting to be around us because we’re gay, and discrimination for not treating our marriage as equal to that of my sister or cousins. It would be easy in the silence to say that these things were the result of personality conflicts or something in my own behavior (Was I too touchy? Did I say something that mentioned homosexuality or gay culture when they didn’t want to hear it?), but time, study and the support of allies in my family has helped me to see the behavior for what it is: homophobia. 

The Issue:

In the case of the SDCC video, we see Jeremy Jordan start off singing about the season and joking that hoover was the only thing that rhymed with Vancouver. It was fun and silly. He moved on to sing that Kara Met Lena and they were best friends. This was great. He then, unprompted, turned to the camera and shouted that they were only friends. By changing his focus to the camera, he shifted the address to the people watching and those who shipped Supercorp specifically. This is an audience of predominately young queer women. Melissa Benoist loudly joined in and Jeremy continued that they were not getting together and they were only friends. The rest of the cast present was laughing. 

The cast gleefully mocked and dismissed a group of young queer fans. By addressing them directly, this action was a form of silencing and bullying. Part of his message was to shut up about queer things because they won’t be canon. It was a JOKE to think they could be.

The greater societal context of that is that they won’t be canon, BECAUSE it’s two women. The level of joy in the mockery was really a way of distancing themselves from gay people and othering them. This is an act of homophobia because wlw (supercorp supporters) were singled out for mockery and silencing. It had a profound negative effect on a lot of people. This is a natural human reaction to being mocked, especially for disenfranchised groups because it is devaluing those who are already devalued by society.

During the recap they also failed to mention the canon lesbian storyline, which was one of the bigger ones for the year, lending to the overall impression that gay people were not important or welcome or worthy of any sort of inclusion. 

The interviewer spoke that, “Any show like this naturally has such a fandom that there’s the natural shipping that goes on.” He gestures to Melissa and Katie and says ‘your two characters, you know about this...” They joked about having no idea while Mechand was like ‘I know about this.” Between that and the singing, this shows that the fandom is one that the show is aware of, members of which (young queer girls), they have been seeing online and at various events. They have a context for who they are talking about. 

Jeremy then took over and said that he felt like he was going to get destroyed, Melissa said something along the lines of, “Maybe, yes” and Jeremy gave a joking ‘I’m sorry’ and said “I just debunked Supercorp live.” Melissa said, “That’s pretty brave.” 

Yes, Supercorp is a vocal fandom. It’s a large fandom, but calling it brave to mock a group of wlw publicly because they might be called out on their homophobia speaks to the self-congratulatory martyrdom of those who speak out against gay marriage and then point out how ‘cruel’ gay people are when they get blowback for it. It’s a lousy thing to do and it serves a greater homophobic purpose as setting up wlw as the ones perpetrating bigotry and ‘forcing their beliefs on people’.  

The interviewer asked if they were caught off guard by fans seeing things that might be there or could be there and what they made of it at this point. 

Melissa said that, ‘It was surprising, not what Katie and I expected to say the least.” She looked very uncomfortable at the prospect of a character she plays being perceived as queer, but did not say anything further negatively. 

Katie was very affirming/not at all uncomfortable. She spoke about how she often plays character with that subtext and she thought this time that it wasn’t there, but, “Wow I was wrong, apparently.” She went on to say that they’d talked about it and was adamant about how wonderful it was that people could take away so many things from the art that they created—that anyone could read into and see anything and that was what THEY saw in it, then to take that away. This was wonderful and a great example of being a great ally. Melissa did nod along at this point as Katie tried to elevate the conversation.  

Chris broke in and said, “Sexuality is all about others perceptions of yours.” He tried to cover it by saying, “That was sarcasm.” This was really a particularly vicious jab because what he was implying was that it’s terrible of gay people to see themselves in this characters because they’re straight. It implies that by not seeing them as 100% straight, queer people are invalidating their (the fictional character’s in this case) straight sexuality and that is wrong. He is saying that a queer reading of the text has no value. It is homophobic because it devalues queer people and plays into a heterosexist world view that because something seems straight it CAN’T be queer.  

Jeremy played the, “I went to musical theater school. I know all about other people’s perceptions of sexuality.” As to say that being perceived as gay was a negative experience that he knew a lot about. 

There was a lot to unpack in a relatively short interaction, but I hoped this helped explain to some extent. There is also the fact the wlw representation has historically been treated as a joke, ratings stunt, or way to titillate straight men. Mocking what would be a really healthy ship based on mutual support as some sort of lunacy is incredibly harmful. 

A Few Themes:

1. It wasn’t that supercorp was gay. It was just that those fans are annoying/intense.

There is definitely a section of fans who is too intense and lacks boundaries and manners. I’ve seen this section of fans in a lot of fandoms, both in wlw ships and in sci-fi fandom in general. It does not make it right, but young wlw fans are the ones being singled out AS A GROUP for it. This is really common with minorities and it in no way excuses degrading them because they are girls who like girls. Mocking a group of queer people and making them a punchline is not an appropriate response to this. 

2. Well Eliza says things about Bellarke so it wasn’t just Supercorp.

The possible Supercorp relationship in no way degrades either of the characters or a marginalized group of people (as is the case when Eliza speaks about Bellarke). She has also, to my knowledge, never directly mocked those shippers in song. There is no history of straight ships being mocked or derided. This is an apples to oranges comparison. 

3. They were shitty to Rahul so they deserve it. People are just responding.

There were some very shitty things said to that man and he didn’t deserve it. Some were from Supercorp shippers and some were from people mocking Supercorp shippers (the tweet that he retweeted and called out was mocking the wlw fans by being shitty to him). This is why it was completely acceptable for him to talk about the intensity of the Supergirl fandom and even Supercorp. He didn’t mock anyone and people were not mad at him, they just wished that the hate was less visible and that things had gone down differently.

That doesn’t mean that the cast has a free ticket to mock wlw shippers.

4. It’s just a fanon ship, so they’re sick of being asked about it. They are being too pushy.

Content creators decided to tap into fandom as a revenue stream and way to increase ratings/merchandise sales. I think this shift started around Twilight and the Jacob vs Edward debates. Content creators encourage shipping to promote sales. It’s not altruistic. They almost always leave any mention of queer ships out. Queer people have stopped accepting that because they are less afraid than they used to be. It’s actually pretty brave to ask in the vast flurry of Peeta vs Gale, to declare yourself Team Joanna and ask about that. It isn’t rude to be gay and engage in the same way as straight shippers do. It isn’t rude to see your ships as equally valid. There are those who take it too far in all aspects of shipping, but gay people aren’t terrible for pushing for representation. 

I think it would be more productive to ask why actors were so bothered by the idea of a main character being bisexual that they decided to mock a large swath of their fanbase. 

5. They didn’t mean it. They have done X, Y, Z things for gay people in the past.

Doing something homophobic, doesn’t mean you are strictly a giant homophobe. Everyone is a little homophobic in the way that everyone is a little racist. Growing up in a heterosexist society does a lot of damage. What matters is learning and moving on. I’m going to give Jeremy a chance to show change. Good allies listen when they’re told that they’ve made a mistake. The rest of the cast has not apologized yet, but if they can do so meaningfully and show change as well, then that would be for the best. 

6. People are Overreacting

You don’t get to decide how people feel about being mocked for their sexuality. They are not being awful for posting things like this, calling out bad actions and asking for change. They aren’t even wrong for saying that they no longer wish to watch the show or interact with a certain actor or actress.  

You CAN call out individuals if they are using hateful language themselves, as always, but you can’t lump all the hurt wlw shippers together in one boat and say negative things about them. 

[insist-on-resisting]

The 14 primary points of fascism, and why Trump is a fascist

1) Powerful and Continuing Nationalism

Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.

While Republicans were not the most patriotic sort during the Obama administration, now that the black guy is out of office and the orange one is in, they’re turning the nationalist fervor up to 11. Trump is planning another series of support rallies already, wanted tanks at the inauguration, and conservatives are once again wrapping themselves in the flag. 

2) Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights

Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.

Trump is listed as a threat to human rights due to his attacks on journalists and free speech, his attempts to de-legitimize citizens exercising speech at protests and town halls by directly stating they are not genuine, and his agenda, which has points against women’s rights and immigrants, not to mention is pro-torture. Human Rights Watch considers him one of the greatest threats in the world today for human rights.

3) Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause

The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial, ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.

Does this one even need explained? When a SEAL died on his watch due to a poor decision made with bad intelligence, he blamed everyone but himself. When anyone in his administration fucks up, he either doubles down, says it didn’t happen, or uses them as a fall guy to insulate his own image. His entire campaign is built on the racist scapegoating of immigrants for economic woes that are not caused by them. He blames President Obama for protests, despite his policies being massively unpopular (a fact which, like many others, he denies). 

4) Supremacy of the Military

Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.

Trump wants to give the military free rein to attack what they want, increase military spending when we are already the largest spender in the world, and quite literally, as mentioned earlier, wanted tanks at the inauguration. Fanatical military worship is bread-and-butter for Republicans. Increasing military spending while decreasing domestic spending is a key part of fascist regimes, and exactly what Trump is doing.

5) Rampant Sexism

The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Opposition to abortion is high, as is homophobia and anti-gay legislation and national policy.

I’ll just leave this here.

6) Controlled Mass Media

Sometimes the media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.

Trump’s bullying and attacks on the press are accomplishing what they were intended to do: the press is on defense, and the new normal is conservative publications known for publishing outright lies and propaganda getting a place in the press corps. His chief of strategy was a key voice on one of those publications, Breitbart, and maintains ties. Organizations that give favorable coverage take precedence, even if they publish things which are not true. He has successfully made objectivity “left-wing” and his followers have their own fact-free echo chamber that nothing enters that he doesn’t allow. They don’t care if they’re lied to, they believe in Trump and only Trump. 

Unfortunately, it’s likely that Trump’s war on the free press is only just getting started.

7) Obsession with National Security

Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.

Once again, Trump is described perfectly. This, too, is a propaganda tool. If people are fearful of the “other,” they will look to a “strong leader” to tell them what to do, and are more likely to allow their civil freedoms to be eroded in the process. Trump’s useless border wall and pointless Muslim ban are both examples of costly, frivolous actions in the name of “national security” that do not actually do anything other than serve as a propaganda tool.

8) Religion and Government are intertwined

Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.

A theocrat is our vice-president. Attacks on abortion, the LGBT+ community, and Muslims as an entire faith all come from evangelicals, who have a strong voice in our new government. 

9) Corporate Power is Protected

The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.

Trump has not only moved to cut taxes for corporations and the uber rich, but actually used an Exxon press release for an official White House statement and made a commercial for them from the White House. He continues to profit from his own businesses, too, and refuses to document potential conflicts-of-interest or divest. Rich guests at his country club get special access to the president.

10) Labor Power is Suppressed

Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.

Sadly, labor power was so far eroded by the time Trump took control of the country that there’s not much left to do -- but Trump doesn’t want to let that get in the way. He’s already planning on trying to restrict unions nationally. Republican right-to-work laws have already destroyed unions in many states, and weakened the national ability of unions to collectively bargain or lobby for the rights of workers. Trump’s own record on unions as a private citizen isn’t pretty, either, and his disdain for workers is well documented. 

11) Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts

Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts.

This is already a well-established point of Republican ideology. That’s why you see so much hate on the right wing for “leftist professors,” and why they want to pass laws like this one. Trump obviously has serious issues with the freedom of expression, and because his skin is so thin, he frequently attacks celebrities or artists who satirize him or are critical in any fashion. 

12) Obsession with Crime and Punishment

Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.

Despite the fact that the overall rate of violent crime has been dropping for decades, Trump makes an awful lot of noise about crime being “out of control.” In fact, he signed three different executive orders designed to “bring crime under control” and “restore safety to the nation.” Republicans support the privatization and industrialization of prisons. This comes at a time when we already incarcerate a higher portion of our own population than any other country in the world. He has set out to purge national agencies of “disloyal” members.

13) Rampant Cronyism and Corruption

Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.

Trump’s corruption is so evident and varied it’s difficult to even know where to start. His lack of released tax returns? His refusal to divest from businesses? His daughter, on multiple occasions, using official resources to promote family brands? Foreign dignitaries staying in his hotels in the hopes of favors? His self-dealing foundation, which may have been operating illegally? His appointment of friends, relatives and sycophants to numerous government offices? He’s not even two months in yet!

14) Fraudulent Elections

Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.

Whether or not there was collusion between Trump and their agents, there is no doubt at this point that Russia meddled in the United States election on Trump’s behalf. A massive, concerted propaganda effort was made, as well as attacks on state voting systems and hacks into the DNC, with carefully timed releases. 

But that’s not even the primary danger we face as voters. Furthermore, that’s from a foreign government (unless collusion is proven). Under the guise protecting against virtually non-existent “voter fraud,” Republicans are working hard to take away your voting rights, or at least make it as difficult as possible to vote. That’s why they close down polling stations, restrict early voting hours, pass unconstitutional voter ID laws, and why they have gerrymandered voting districts to the point where a Republican vote is worth more than a Democratic one. Trump has continued this trend by spreading the falsehood that there were “3 million illegal votes” (the amount he lost the popular vote by) and demanding an investigation. 

#KeepResisting

[venti-venting-double-shot]

Last week, my d&d character got publicly branded...

...and it was probably one of the best experiences I’ve ever had in any roleplaying game I’ve ever been in. 

So, some context: it’s a ton of homebrew stuff, and one of the things is relating to Tieflings, and how they (and their Aasimar counterparts) eventually succumb to their fiendish blood (or, well, celestial). In the case of Tieflings, it kind of drives them insane ... like, tear your face off and eat it, insane. 

Naturally, this leads a lot of people to be... suspicious... of Tieflings in general. When will they fly off the handle? WHO KNOWS? It varies from Tiefling to Tiefling, and it isn’t terribly well-studied for obvious reasons. Like, there’s even a special order (The Silver Order) that’s meant to deal with various supernatural things, and the Brotherhood Bane handles all things fiendish or outsider-related ... Tieflings being a part of that. 

Only... if the Moon Blades, another branch of the Silver Order, are a surgeon’s knife meant to handle a problem with precision and care... the Brotherhood Bane is a fucking cannon you aim, fire, and worry about the casualties from later. 

The way Tieflings interact with this setting is full of racism and misunderstanding of things like mental illness and curses; it’s all about superstition and fear and the hatred that that brings, and it has horrendously fucked with my character from the day she was born. 

I took a sort of Tyrion Lannister approach with her origins - that is to say, nobility, probably royalty since her grandfather was the ruler of the country she was born to. (Mother died in childbirth, dad was MIA from the start.) Dreary place, stormy cliffsides, but lively people who adapted the motto “Weather the storm” as a way of spiting the shitty things that life throws at you. They wear bright colors with detailed patterns, tons of baubles, and their food is so flavorful it’d make a lesser being’s eyes water. Basically, I made a New Orleans spirited Greyjoy locale with the aesthetic of various Romani and India inspired colors & patterns. 

I say Tyrion Lannister because I always appreciated his constant awareness of the privilege his family name had given him - namely, not being killed upon birth, though it didn’t do him much good when it came to the abuses he suffered. 

Anyway, Mai is the character’s name, and she fell in love with another noble-born Tiefling girl she was introduced to, Alyssa Starstrider, a high elf that basically defined the term “aloof grace.” Alyssa was the first person that was ever kind to her, for starters, but it definitely helped that they were both Tieflings. To shorten this part of the story, I’ll just say that Alyssa was... troubled, even without the issues of the Dark Embrace, or the abuse she suffered at the hands of the family that was supposed to love and protect her. The two idiots ran away together, and eventually Alyssa succumbed to that good ol’ fiendish blood, and basically begged Mai to kill her before it was too late. Very sad. 

Alyssa was kind of my experiment in how genuine mental illness would interact with a catalyst as powerful as literally evil blood consuming your very being. The result was ... not a pretty picture. She’s easily one of the most complex characters I’ve ever created, and she’s a relatively minor background character that died ten years before the story even started. She did care for Mai, but the romantic love was not reciprocated so much as manipulated with intent that was neither good nor bad. 

Mai wound up being kind of a jackass, understandably, because the ordeal with Alyssa wasn’t even really the worst thing she suffered at the hands of other people; hell, she and Alyssa were briefly hunted down by the Brotherhood Bane, and though they narrowly escaped (due to Alyssa being very charming and them both being very young and helpless looking), the town that harbored them was burned to the ground. Distinctly unpleasant, no? 

But that all kind of changed when she joined a guild; a group of adventurers that nobody else really wanted in their party, all flung together into their team of rejects. A wood elf (in a setting where they’re racist eco-terrorists at war with the fey), a tribal orc (in a setting where they raid towns regularly), an underdark drow (in a setting where the drow killed their gods and most went to the surface, while the rest remained a terror for the surface world), the equivalent of a Chosen Undead (for those of you dark souls nerds), an outcast half Yuan-Ti (snake people, or sneeple), a way-too-adorable-and-cheerful half high-elf monk, and a dude in really shiny armor that looked way too young to know what he was doing (that wound up being a Chosen Paladin in a setting where most of the remaining dieties have like 1 or 2 paladins per generation, but I digress). 

They all kind of filled voids in one another, and became something of a family; they saved towns being raided by underdark elves, they saved the Baron of their country from a doppleganger plot, and a bunch of other cool shit that basically made them famous. The half Yuan-Ti was even a bard that made them rock stars, and... all of that included Mai, and that got the attention of the Brotherhood Bane. 

Suddenly, all of the racist shit just kind of collided all at once; the lingering, wary stares were nothing compared to the ice cold looks barely seen behind creepy masks of silver. The snide comments were nothing compared to the way they brazenly marched through town, questioning everyone. 

And Mai could have run for it, but... she really cared about the town, Runehearth, and everyone in it. She knew that they would probably die if she ran for it, and she also knew that they were a respected guild and that she had the favor of several nobles to keep her and everyone she cared about alive as long as she cooperated. But, well, that didn’t necessarily mean that 1) she wasn’t still terrified, and 2) things would go by smoothly. After all, she was still a Tiefling, and in particular, she was a Tiefling gifted with magical abilities. (Magus, especially, which are capable of putting out shattering burst damage.) 

It was deeply uncomfortable, and terrifying, and one of the most tense situations I’ve ever been in. The leader of the Brotherhood Bane group that had come for Mai spoke with the guild’s advisor and the leader of the town, while she answered questions coming from a huge guy in a mask made from a Tiefling’s skull and coated in silver. 

Her guildmates didn’t know what was happening, and she was afraid to say anything that might be construed as threatening or insulting - after all, despite her past history of being a jackass, she had grown to care for these people, and it wasn’t her own life that she was most afraid for. 

And then the leader of the town came back out and spoke with her and told her what was going to happen - a mark, basically, to track her progression into the Dark Embrace. A registry. And, well, we all know how well it goes when you have an entire group of people that you feel the need to slap a mark on to register them. But Mai accepted the terms, because it was better than everyone getting killed. 

Except they started to do it right then and there, and her guild mates freaked out and started a fight, which ended horribly and led to Mai basically being dragged to the center of town and it became a spectacle and ... 

And that’s when the orc, Lur, said something that kind of changed everything. Even as the Brotherhood Bane was delivering their spiel to the newly gathered crowd, even as they were basically firing up their dumb magical brand, and even as the rest of the guild was basically being held down by various Brothers... “Say the word,” he said, “and the Runeguard will come.” 

And that’s when Mai realized that none of it mattered; the villagers were horrified, her guildmates were devastated, and the only people who seemed to give a single fuck about the supposed “justice” were a group of little more than thugs given too much power. Something kind of, like... settled, because it wasn’t about this moment, it wasn’t about her, it wasn’t about the Brothers, it was about a message. 

“No,” she told Lur. “He wants to make an example. And I’m going to let him.” 

And so it happened, and it was terrible, and she was literally bed ridden in the alchemist’s house for two days, and some people even started protests to try to get her out of town, and Mai was definitely fucked up by the whole ordeal, but like... she saw her opportunity to basically be a martyr, and use her political position for good, and she fucking took it. 

She’s petitioning the Baron (who will talk to the Duke, who will talk to the King), she’s writing a book (most of the literature on Tieflings, if not all of it, was not written by Tieflings, and Mai has an education and a 20 intelligence, so it’s not exactly hard to come up with quality academic content), the works. She fully intends to pioneer a movement for the benefit of all Tieflings, and her lofty ambitions also include curing the Dark Embrace (or, at least, kickstarting the attempt to do so in legitimate circles, instead of desperate fool’s efforts). 

...

And that’s the story of how I’m starting a social justice movement in D&D for Tiefling rights. 

Also, Mai is a lesbian. In case the bit with Alyssa wasn’t obvious enough. 

But no, seriously, like ... it was the most intense session I’ve ever been in, and it hurt so bad, but it was the biggest turning point my character has had. She let herself be vulnerable (and hurt) for the sake of not getting everyone killed, which is not something she would have ever done before. And, well... racism is an issue we face right now, in the real world, as is misunderstanding of mental illness (and homophobia, but that’s not an issue in this setting). For all anyone in this setting knows, the Dark Embrace could eventually be a perfectly harmless thing or altogether nonexistent, if studied properly instead of (heh) demonized. 

To have it all thrown together in this CLUSTERFUCK of a session had my heart pounding, and I was practically hyperventilating (as were some other players). It was... emotionally heavy, to say the least. I’m still reeling, and it’s been a week. 

/end ramble