#theyre aliens. what does alien gender mean to them????

[kass-arm-dra]

Playing the mass effect trilogy and something that really rustles my jimmies/sticks salt in my sugar/ etc etc is the absolute lack of hot butches to romance. My (supposdly) butch 4 butch Shepard is SUFFERING. Like. Assassin's Creed odyssey and Vallhalla and BG3 really spoiled me about this. Anyway, she's romanced Liara in the first game but imagine me doing the romance scenes with liara and me making this face >:( the whole time.

[genderkoolaid]

i am genuinely confused by something you said in your joan of arc post & i would love if you could clarify. you said "women afab can be trans. men amab can be trans." i understand how that applies to intersex people, who may be assigned a sex they identify with but have other sex characteristics that they get dysphoria from. or theyre assigned as one sex but once puberty hit they developed far more traits of the other sex, so they had to transition back to what they used to be. i understand those scenarios. but as far as we know, joan of arc wasnt intersex & you dont bring up intersex in your post. how can a non-intersex person transition to something they already are & have been for their entire life? changing how one presents, like changing their style of clothes to better suit their gender & personality, doesnt count as "transitioning" imo, cis people do that aaall the time, multiple times throughout their lives. so what do you actually mean by this??

So my definition of trans is very much inspired by Leslie Feinberg's definition of trans(gender): An umbrella term for "everyone who challenges the boundaries of sex and gender," in which ze specifically includes cross-dressing and GNC people who are men AMAB and women AFAB. I would define trans as being inclusive of anyone who queers sex and/or gender.

In my humble nonbinary opinion, we way over-rely on the idea of trans as being about identifying as a gender that isn't your assigned sex. I, for example, was assigned female and identify as (amongst other genders) a woman, but my womanhood is very much trans. For one, I was on T for two years and intend to get bottom surgery, but I was also alienated from typical cis girlhood for my entire life and my womanhood is inherently tied to me also being a man and abinary. My womanhood is not cisnormative at all.

"Woman" and "man" (and male and female) are all constructs. Just because someone may call themself a woman, and have been assigned female at birth, does not mean they identify as the same kind of woman that society expects and demands them to. There are different ways of constructing womanhood. The "gender identity that isn't AGAB" definition was built on the idea of trans people as going from one binary point to the other, with the assumption that "woman" and "man" are still Real Things with one natural meaning. Attempts at being nb-inclusive have basically just said "well nonbinary isn't a gender assigned at birth, so its trans!" which is completely true, but it also ignores all the nonbinary and genderqueer people whose genders are more nuanced than that.

On Jeanne d'Arc specifically, I actually have some relevant quotes on this:

(from Vested Interests: Crossdressing and Cultural Anxiety and Clothing and Gender Definition: Joan of Arc respectively)

This is why I included that line: because we often assume, in our exorsexism, that a historical figure must identify as a man/woman (cis), as the opposite (trans), or maybe as neither, but those are the only options. We are still limiting ourselves and these historical figures' by limiting how we understand gender and genderqueerness. To Jeanne, being a cross-dressing female virgin soldier could be its own gender, something different than the genders of cisnormative mothers and nuns.

& as a note: I feel like, a lot of the time, non-intersex people in the community will make exceptions for intersex people (like "well, intersex people can be transfemmascs/male lesbians/etc" but no one else!!!") which. doesn't actually seem that great for intersex people? Like aside from assuming that these genderqueer experiences can only be had by intersex people, it also means that if you identify that way, you must Prove that you are Allowed to be doing that, by both outing yourself as intersex and arguing that you are intersex Enough.

[milky-oatmeal18]

tell me all of ur invader zim headcanons or like aus or whatever u NEED to talk more

i do have an au i am working on, though i think ill make a separate post for that, right now ill just talk about headcanons!!

disclaimer that u dont have to agree with any of my headcanons, this is just how i see them personally, and there are times when i draw them older, but that's only really for aus or something

also, giving young kids sexualities isnt sexualizing, kids can know when they like boys or girls more, or both! <3

DIB

dib is about 14 when i draw him (probably like 13 and 9 months old, still a baba)

5'0 in height

mexican

he is autistic! his hyper-fixations are aliens, and cryptids in general, i would like to think he also fixates on technology, and building things

the headphones i draw him in are sensory headphones! theyre just noise cancelling but they help him a lot!

he is trans FtM, but since hes young hes just on hormone blockers and practices deep voices and stuff, which is why his voice is still high, but still masc (he/him)

in the show i know he does hack into things, but i like to think he also programs a lot! he makes a lot of stuff for his own use, like for his computer he made a program that helps him keep all his personal info on zim, it has a password and everything so no one tries stealing anything

he has anger issues, not major ones, but he does get mad a lot and easily, he usually calms down by napping or watching supernatural documentaries

he draws a lot more than you think! i know theres silly doodles across his room, but i like to think he has a binder full of all his drawings that arent on his walls or anything, hes a weird kid, so hed probably draw like zims gut anatomy or something

he tries playing the guitar, hes not the worst at it, he just cant play a full song without messing up at least once

he has paranoia, its hard for him to sleep usually, so that's why he's almost always tired, when he cant sleep he stays up trying to find more stuff on zim!

he prefers tea over coffee! while he does love coffee, i like to think he drinks tea more cause of prof membrane, and he doesn't complain about it, his favorite tea is black tea!

i like to think that he knows he's not straight but just doesn't know what he is, he says omni whenever someone asks, but he doesn't really know

he loves, and i mean LOVES gir so much that he gets kinda upset that he cant have his own sir(?) unit, i mean who doesnt

his briefcase is actually a case for his laptop that he just uses as a briefcase at times, sometimes his laptop is in there sometimes its not, depending on what he's set out to do

ZIM

when i draw zim, i personally see him around the age 14-15 (14 and 9 months at least) still a baba

4'11 in height

zim has adhd, though on irk its just seen as him having trouble in a lot of things, or just as a defect, it doesn't bring him down though!

though zim is young, he did go through invader training because of how irkens are made just to be weapons and/or invaders

he used to be a scientist for the irken empire, but quickly got excluded from being one due to messing around and messing up a lot of valuable equipment, the turtle neck was kept from being a scientist as a kind of punishment to "remember what he did" but he just thinks it looks cool

he was never given limb enhancers like the other invaders cause he isn't a real invader, so he thought hed make his own cause he though maybe they just forgot to give him some, it does have a bit more advances than the regular invader one, since they're not allowed to enhance or add onto their enhancers without given permission

zim cant eat many earth foods, but he also cant eat many irk foods, , not cause of allergies, but because of his sensory issues, its hard for him to eat in general (his safe food is waffles!!)

irkens dont have genders, mainly prefered pronouns in which zims are he/it

he made his own hearing aid cause of how much it was pushed off on irk, no one really believed that irkens can be born with defects like that unless their antennas are damaged (only his right antenna is mostly deaf)

he sees gir as his little brother more than he sees him as a sir unit, he doesn't know the term brother, but knows he cares more about gir than anything else even if he finds him annoying

he forgets things, a LOT, in the comic i think its funny how fast he forgets things or pushes things aside, but i like to think he just, actually forgets that fast, even if he tries to remember it

like dib, he doesnt really know his sexuality, mostly cause of how irkens don't have genders, or don't really have the concept of genders in their head, so he just also thinks he's omni, with a masc pref

i like to think he has more of a over bite, but when he's not paying attention he sometimes puts his bottom row of teeth over his lips, just as a little fidget, or just does it while biting the skin off his lips (if irkens have lips?? idk probably not visible ones)

he is still growing, height wise, but when he's older his hight wont be the tallest, probably a few inches or so

GAZ

gaz is 11 and a half (11 and 6 months) she is also, a baba

5'0 in height, suck it zim

mexican

she has adhd as well, fixated on games and pigs

her safe food is pizza!! she loves eating it with her dad and dib, they just like being able to spend time with all of them even if she messes with dib a lot

she likes cryptids to a degree, also isn't as obsessed as dib is, just thinks that only SOMETIMES they're interesting

she tells dibs to make hacks for her in games, and even tells him to make games or addons for games, she usually plays the games dib makes for like a day and then never again

along with the guitar, she can play the drums! she likes playing them while dibs trying to sleep or nap

she is a lesbian and a demigirl! (she/they)

they have a lot of stuff for stress reliving in her room, like a punching bag and a LOT of pillows to punch, she sometimes puts a picture of dibs face on the punching bag, but its not as good as the real thing

she doesnt hate dib, she wont mind if he holds her hand while they walked home or hugged her from time to time, she just likes tormenting him cause its funny

she prefers coffee over tea, which is why they have coffee at their house, she prefers it over tea but would still drink tea if they had some, plus prof membrane basically makes them drink it at times, she prefers her coffee black, but wont mind it being super sweet either

the necklace that her dad gave her actually has a tracker in it incase she ever gets lost, they never get lost cause they're mostly at home, but just incase

she thinks zim is interesting, they think its interesting how he is and how it even got to earth, but she cant be bothered to find out, all she knows is that he's annoying

gaz is sort of blind, they have hyperopia (far-sighted) she does have glasses but only uses them if they really need to, she doesnt wanna look like a nerd like dib

she usually cuts her hair by themself, mostly cause of how when they go get it cut they usually give her a bob instead of what they wanted

probably prefers punk, goth, and emo over scene, but still admires others who can pull it off

has a little case for their game slave! its like a little bag, shes always sure to have it on themself so shes never bored

GIR

gir has no real age mostly cause of how hes a robot, but i like to think theyre always seen as a child, 8 years old to be exact

gir is autistic coded!

3'5 in height

they have no gender as well, obviously, but do have "preferred" pronouns (it usually gets called by it/they/he)

he really does care about zim and his mission, it just has a lot of trouble focusing on it, or functioning right, since theyre literally made of garbage

his sir unit build is the same as mimis (taks sir), but just defected with misprints and messed up parts, thats why he has prints in the same place as mimi, just messed up

adding onto that, he doesnt have the same big arm as mimi on his left, both his arms are from the builds that regular invaders have

a lot of his parts float, his arms can still extend and move freely, its just that they float , there is a sertain extent where if they go too far they just detach or recoil back to the body, they only detach if zim needs to fix anything on gir

a lot of his body can be detached, almost every single part, he can either still be sentient while they do, or be turned off

zim actually made girs disguise, like handmade, so it has different shades of green scattered around on it, its obviously fake, but people fall for it

the blue color on him changes depending on how he feels, usually its just other shades of blue (ex. dark blue for sad, bright blue for happy/excited, a little duller blue for neutral, you get it) , but when he actually takes orders is when he turns a different color (red)

a lot of the foods he eats can actually turn into fuel for him, depends on what it is, if its chips, soda, slushies, donuts, or any foods that would be on irk as well, will most likely be transferred into energy for him, if its foods like pizza, tacos, or just anything thats specific to earth, it will most likely get jammed into his system, to where zim has to clean almost all the time

a lot of his system is messed up, but zim fixed it up a bit, he doesnt know what causes gir to be crazy and silly and just the way he is, but he feels like it wont feel right if gir was just a normal sir unit

ill probably come back to this to add or fix some stuff if i ever feel the need to, but for now these are all the headcanons i have for them!! these are either adding onto or just new ones that werent on the refs i made for them, so yeah!! again this is just how i see them, you dont have to agree or anything

[variant-archive]

i've been scrambling to find flags/terms relating to all types of adhd, the same way ive seen a ton of flags for different ocd types/subtypes, same for other disorders (npd, specific delusion types, etc) i feel like it'd be great for people to have flags they can use to specify theyre type! if you could help find something like that id absolutely love it... /not forced

As far as being recognized by psychologists and co., there's only the three subtypes (primarily hyperactive, primarily inattentive aka me, and combined). There's also cognitive disengagement syndrome (formerly sluggish cognitive tempo) which is another attention disorder but not exactly an ADHD subtype, more like a parallel disorder of attention. My OCD subtype flags have all been subtypes that are recognized by clinicians so far. They can be found on NOCD which is a treatment and info site for OCD. There are also clinically recognized subtypes for personality disorders and delusions which is probs what you've seen flags for (although I have seen some PD "archetype" terms/flags but I consider that different from a subtype and more of a way to express yourself than describe symptoms, totally valid though).

That being said I think creating unofficial subtypes of existing conditions is... probably fine? Definitely better than straight up MUDs (for those who haven't gone into radqueer rabbit holes out of morbid curiosity, that means people making up entirely new disorders without any basis in science or any research or anything). But subtypes of existing conditions isn't a thing people besides those in the field of practice are doing yet afaik. I've considered doing this for OCD myself because obsessions and compulsions can be about anything so any number of subtypes exist as long as someone experiences them. But subtypes of things like OCD and phobias are a lot more simple, straightforward, and inherently implied/included under the disorder than it would be for something like ADHD. I think it's probably fine but it would require more consideration than coining a gender or something and individuals should get input from others with the condition. And definitely don't coin subtypes for conditions you don't have (unless you're helping someone who does, I suppose). Trust me, I super super get the appeal especially for those who don't fit the "stereotype" their neurotype has bc that can feel alienating for sure (I actually think this is a core reason why folks feel the need to coin MUDs to describe their exact symptoms, with the other core reason being that people with symptoms unexplainable by any existing condition want a "reason" or "cause" to attribute them to when sometimes people just... have symptoms, on their own, not fitting any diagnosis). Just be careful and considerate, please!

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

word of god isnt canon

canon?? doctor who canon???

13 is the doctor like any before her

i dont think it's fun to watch her go through all that timeless child shit and then happily go diagnose her like what am i some kind of cop??

imo it's way more interesting if the doctor isnt autistic because then we can use that given to think about our own ways of doing things, the same way the doctor being able to regenerate as a man or a woman is a way to examine our ideas about gender (i mean, in theory i think thats the idea?) like it's boring when rallon and millennia kiss, it's boring not to lean into the alienness of gallifreyan society like i know theyre england or whatever but theyre also an alien society and thats interesting to explore! we can use that to defamiliarise things we take for granted in our society and interrogate them why be so fucking heteronormative about it when theres so much more potential to explore and actually interrogate our own systems if we DONT call the doctor autistic. like, what doors does THAT open. what can we think about THEN

[guideaus]

tristamp ep 10 thoughts

zazie is info dumping again

idk if the orange writers think this makes sense, or maybe its wrong of me to use irl logic, but vegetation would not replace a magical resource that gives u water, electricity, etc., i think at best the air would get better lol

i dont know why conrad is info dumping either lmao

i cant say i like july's generic cyberpunk vibe. ik i saw a lot of ppl after tristamp wonder how anyone can even build anything in this world, and then tristamp does this with july lol

vash's sneeze was funny to me

vash is spider-man now fhdfjdsfds??? his flimsy little arm looks like it wouldve broke w 2 ppl

i just think its crazy they have a character finally say smth significant to vash and its another faceless goon

vash does not fucking respond to anything in this series

and that scene somehow felt like nothing

conrad's operation room has got some violations

and him just being like "yes, and here's where i do my experiments..." is so funny

i HATE eg mine being included. originally before any tristamp nonsense, i was like "hmm, wonder if knives shared some tech w his guns" but here eg mine apparently being associated with them... when knives just kills him. it makes no sense 😭😭

AND WASNT CONRAD JUST SHOWN TO APOLOGIZE TO KNIVES IN THE LAST EP??? in tristamp the plants arent really human (in the way that theyre probably fucking aliens or some shit 100%, not like in trimax where theyre experimented on humans to become something more, but thats how i always interpreted it), but even still why would he keep doing it lmao. "sorry, we're terrible" *keeps experimenting but in a slightly different way* ???

if he wants humans to basically become independant plants, wouldnt that be helping humanity in a way, why would knives allow that. i might be basing this on trimax's knives, but still. i think tristamp knives still hates people right? i dont think he'd be like "oh, so you're a plant now? sure, thats fine, whatever."

roberto adding to the inexplicable Perception, too, i see

i think it kinda sucks that tristamp kinda connects all the antagonists? EoM and Knives' gang. i think Livio and Chapel indirectly work for knives, but through Legato's commands, but they dont really have a shared goal? while in tristamp it feels direct... if that makes sense, idk

ww is still an asshole :(

vash's body looks weird. does meat look like that?? is that normal?? and wtf is the random lines and shit. i feel like im watching cyberpunk edgerunners

not to be one of those ppl who blame everything on the mcu, but why tf is this scene so dark. cant see shit

vash's scars revelation here is also just strange in general. in the manga it was a good early prompt into vash's issues, meryl & milly see and meryl insists he should retire from his life, and vash says he cant bc of his bro, but vash is also a pacifist so thats his price, this moves milly and meryl. while here its just... idk. feels random, and another excuse for tsundere ww to call out passive vash

conrad being fucking mad scientist AGAIN is so funny. he looks like he turned evil here. yesterday i had a post cooking up abt him and knives' relationship, but this just feels funny. how is knives allowing him to live here, even if its with the humans

cocoon knives back at the piano

tree. who knows if it means anything or if its like the previous imagery used so far

some cute elf bitches

expecting me to believe knives would willingly help him experiment on anything is just... knives i think is a hiuge hypocrite, judgemental, and reactive and those are flaws i like about his character, i dont think he'd allow this LMAO

are they gonna kill vash

is conrad transphobic here or is elendira's gender changed? and was she like. fake napping just to wake up to be like "um, who are you calling poor" and attack or fjsdhsjds

i dont even get what theyre pushing. tristamp LOVES having characters throw "monster" around, but then also elendira is attacking while saying they judge her. what theme is being pushed lol. and why is she even attacking

i forgot to say, but i hate what they did to elendira, btw.

ROBERTO IS NOW DYIGN FHSDJSKKJDS no one saw him injured... vash just waved their asses off fshdjsas???

i think her expressions are good there

i cannot say how much i disagree with wolfwood's initial ideals being overlayed with meryl's apparent newfound determination in response to her senior dying. ww's "you need to kill to survive" is his own lie to himself to cope with being a child soldier, called out by vash in the beginning of trimax and serves as character development he moves on from. having meryl take that as a lesson is incredibly strange. i strongly disagree with that take. her just going to a shooting range and maybe learning the basics would arguably be more significant for her lmao

tristamp just does not do a good job w vashwood's relationship. at all. if i just saw this i'd roll my eyes at shippers. theres nothing there

why did knives ask why he's there. isnt ww implied at least to have brought him there on orders from him

where are zazie and legato btw

did conrad just fucking leave to his office lmao. "oh no the people i was info dumping to are getting attacked by elendira! ...eh"

is that tesla??

whys his knife got an eyeball. whose is it

CONRAD IS BEGGING FOR FORGIVENESS AGAIN IN THIS SCENE. DOES KNIVES KNOW ABOUT TESLA?? HOW IS CONRAD STILL DOING THIS FJHSDJDS

tristamp loves just throwing around aspects of catholicism without actually... fitting it in. like they just use it when its convenient, eps having antagonists preach it

the piano activated floor trap is funny

idk what knives could be referring to, so we'll see i guess

[ppnuggie]

Heyy!! Congrats on all ur followers! Can i request a match up for G1 transformers? I hope this isn’t too long 😳

Personality: im very people oriented, But i keep my friend circle relatively small but we are very close! I have a very happy bubbly disposition and positive outlook on life no matter how bad it gets. Im smart and very interested in art and science, the environment and nature.

I can be really anxious at times (anxiety disorder) but i don’t let it get me down! I have overcome a lot in life and enjoy guiding people through their struggles/giving advice. Im more alternative leaning in fashion, piercings, dyed hair, etc. I can be really ruthless and unforgiving if someone is being horrible or cross my friends with intent to harm, but i don’t hold grudges and i forgive people when they ask. Im fairly brave and i dont like to back down from a challenge

I like to do volunteer work when I can, especially with children and animals. My adhd makes it hard to commit to things so i come off as lazy (i am also genuinely lazy sometimes lol) and i jump from thing to thing without finishing it, despite being scientifically inclined i can get over emotional in debate and just in general. I can also be very judgmental when someone does something morally incorrect and hold myself to high standards morally. Im also extremely loyal.

Likes: plants, bugs, nature, food, movies/tv, horror, chilling, music, vibing, ALIENS!!, archeology, biology, animals

Dislikes: all forms of discrimination, liars, cheaters, rich people, crooks, directors that ruin movies by making shitty sequels, environmental damage

Gender preference: male

ty !! :D and dw its alr that its long ^^ it rlly helps me when its that way bc it lets me be able to do matchups in the way i want to ^^ w/ a lot of depth and detail 😎🙏 i managed to match you with two different characters 👀

𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐃 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 :

- perceptor

- wheeljack

𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐋𝐔𝐃𝐄𝐒 :

perceptor ::

• perceptor is definitely into teaching you what you wish to know about science ,, more of biology or outer space then wheeljack is able to

• hes also quite a calm guy to be around ,, not too loud nor harsh ,, hes just nice in general :)

• he’ll indulge in your liking towards nature ,, maybe even teaching you a thing or two about a specific plant you two might come across

• being with him also means getting a few trips to space 🥴 as he does go every now and then when optimus requests he be there ,, and he usually takes you along <3

• he’s okay with bugs ,, but definitely interested in learning about them if theyre foreign ,, or if theyre not insecticons 💀

wheeljack ::

• wheeljack is more active and energetic then perceptor is ,, and is more in for mechanical science then biology ,, but that doesnt mean he’s not interested in other types of science ,, just that hes best with engineering :)

• he’ll definitely be lazy with you ,, cuddling together and watching a show or movie ,, he doesnt have much of a preference but he will make unnecessary comments 💀🙏

• probably point out a few errors or call the character’s actions stupid sometimes ,, but he does laugh a little here and there

• wheeljack doesnt touch space stuff as much as perceptor does ,, but he does take some liking in archeology ,, wanting to learn about ancient artifacts at times

• wheeljack probably isnt great about healthy environments ,, especially since his stuff does blow up sometimes ,, but he makes sure to do it away from habitats and do it in his lab ,, even if it means getting a disappointed sigh from optimus 💔

𝐒𝐂𝐄𝐍𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐎 :

the two of you walked along the soft yet mushy ground ,, perceptor gazing about at the foreign scenery. it felt like something out of a book ,, a small paradise with bioluminescent plant life all around. even the water glowed a nice purple ,, little creatures skittering and swimming about.

it could easily remind you of the movie avatar ,, how pandora had such beautiful plant life. the leaves atop of your heads were stretched out wide and had lovely pink streaks glowing amongst their dark blue color.

“ wonderful isnt it ?” perceptor asked ,, smile placed softly on his face plate as he glanced down at you. “ makes me wish i could stay here forever with you ,,” he chuckled softly to himself as you two continued your walk.

[halewitzka]

There are so many The Queers Were Good And The Straights Were Bad In Rocky Horror takes and I'm so ????

RHPS is good because none of these characters are good people! None! They're all incredibly interesting and it varies how much of a bad person the individual character is, but none of them are morally pure. They all do shit that you wouldn't approve of, the only character that is arguably innocent in the narrative is Rocky because he's got like 3 braincells to his name and has been plopped into a world that severely happens to him the entire time and that he can barely make sense of.

Like bro the siblings for sure aren’t the good guys, but what makes them bad is not the fact that theyre in a straight relationship. I mean theyre literally aliens, what do we know whether the concept of genders and/or heterosexuality is even a thing for them. You can't even apply straight to them in that sense.

But even if we disregard the alien bit and say okay, theyre in a straight, incestuous relationship - the fact that it's straight isn't morally condemning. Even the incest, which seems to not be normal or accepted within the transsylvanian culture either (going off of surrounding material that isn't in RHPS itself), is at least consensual. Compare and contrast with Frank, the beloved protagonist, setting out to rape 3 people over the course of a 90 minute movie.

Frank is a narcissist, and he is despicable for just about every single thing he does. Him being queer (again, technically alien logic so how queer in the human sense he really is is questionable but lets ignore that) doesn't make him a good person, in fact he's the worst person in the entire movie. But he's an excellent CHARACTER. He's fun to watch, and as a viewer you enjoy his presence immensely. You experience what it's like to get drawn in by him the same way he draws in the majority of the surrounding cast. But he's awful. He murders and rapes and has no regard for anyone but himself. No amount of queerness will save him from that.

Janet and Brad both have queer experiences during the movie, but does that make them queer? Brad's only sexual contact is with Frank, who may I remind you is assaulting him and then keeps going despite the fact that Brad never actually says yes to what's happening, he just ceases to put up resistance. He actively tells Frank to stop and Frank DOESN'T LISTEN. When Janet sees the aftermath of that encounter on the monitor, Frank looks very pleased with himself and Brad is off to the side, more clothed than he was when Frank came in, and seems to contemplate what just happened to him - and not in a good way.

Janet, while more enthusiastic about it, also has to get tricked into sex with Frank for it to happen in the first place and later goes on to have sex with Rocky. Granted, sex with Frank can in some shape or form always be interpreted as queer because of who Frank is, but he's mostly treated as a man by the narrative (I say mostly because there is that very telling part about him wanting to look like Fay Wray in Rose Tint My World, although he also expresses jealousy only over her clothing).

To get back to the point, Janet's only other explicitly queer contact is with Columbia, during Rose Tint My World - which seems to have all of them under the influence of some sort of spell/drug/alien pheromone??? Brad still is hesitant about what is happening during RTMW despite participating, so it's a bit unclear how much of their actions during the song are out of free will. I'm not saying that because I want to diminish the queer contact that does very much happen, I just think seeing it happen and deciding it's queer and therefore a good thing without further questioning isn't a good idea considering the context of the movie.

I personally like to think that Brad and Janet both realised something about themselves and their relationship with sex during the movie and took some of it with them post-castle. Maybe Janet actively allows herself to enjoy sex. Maybe she's had a bit of a bi awakening. Maybe Brad really did enjoy sex with a man and has to come to terms with it, or maybe he recognizes that it happened to him and he doesn't want that again. While I don't think that would’ve been a thought when the movie was made, Brad is also interpretable as realising he's not into sex at all and is coming to terms with that in a time where asexuality was not really part of the lgbtq vernacular yet

My point is, it's very difficult to assign "queer" or "straight" to most of these characters, and the same problem arises when trying to label them as "good" or "bad". They're complex, all of them, both in their morality and identity, and leave a lot of room for interpretation.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show is amazing because it's telling a queer story without shying away from letting its characters be gross and unpolished and wrong. It's a story about people connecting with their sexuality as much as it is a story about a narcissist who gets whats coming to him at the hand of a servant he's neglected and abused. I could write a whole essay on how Riff Raff gets pushed to kill in the final act throughout the movie, and how Magenta doesn't seem to realise it up until it's too late. But this was about the fact that RHPS doesnt make it as easy as "queer vs straight" and "good vs bad" so I'm gonna shut up now

[dyketubbo]

^me when i am listening and i want to hear your thoughts

ok so basically i think assigning a gender binary to original nonhumans is very weird. like if youre making a character based off an already existing species with sexual dimorphism sure!! obviously im not going to side-eye like. furry comics where the clear intent is to just have humanoid animals especially when the animal also has a vague sex binary like humans do (i say vague because, well, exceptions exist very often)

but when it comes to say.. endermen. or making an alien species. or even just an original species thats not just like. a bird combined with something or whatever. i think its very boring to just give them a male/female binary anyways. and i know theres still nonbinary characters in stories like this, but i mean like.. if youre making characters that arent supposed to be human, why emulate humanity? i could understand maybe if they were made to mimic humanity, or if theyre a minority in their vague sex binary, but ive seen many stories and art etc etc where the standard is clearly. male and female binary and the occasional nonbinary character

but. nature isnt really like that. sure in many species because of how sexual reproduction works theres the sex that carries and the sex that inseminates but theres also animals whose sex changes, or you could be creative and base the species off plants, or just make them able to both carry and inseminate, or even just explore asexual reproduction

and its only even more pushed with, well, exploring queer narratives with nonhumans. this isnt to say i dont enjoy them, i definitely do, but i feel like theres much more exciting ways to explore queer narratives with nonhumans that. isnt just like, oh they have Our gender system, or oh theyre just like us but different terms, or oh they Dont have gender but then they find out about Human genders and experiment!! i do have a slight bias with that last one though because i do think its one of the least explored in actual potential just that. in most cases its a little boring. give some spice to how robots would explore the gender binary rather than just giving them the appearance of a male or female and having them be vaguely clueless about gender. explore how humans would force the gender binary on them instead of just giving each a blank state explore how humans will inevitably force our gender system onto nonhuman creatures

and in fact, that last bit is Why i think i never connect easily to like.. say, endermen but they have a gender binary even though ingame you literally cannot tell the difference between any of them. its really just. humans will often assume gender even onto species that just would not experience gender like us. even trans creators will often do this, and i get it, like. the easiest way to tell the reader what gender a character is is by giving them human gender traits, like top surgery for a character belonging to a species that. doesnt have tits. or tits on a transfem character, uh. again, on a character belonging to a species that wouldnt have tits (yes this is vaguely about binary trans cranboo/oranboo depictions not to say i dont like those headcanons but it does make me tilt my head a little to like. think about the implications of endermen having binary sexes. why would they)

but.. i dont know. as a nonbinary person who connects a lot to nonhuman narratives i guess its disheartening. it also feels like, i dont want to say white centered or like a western ideal, because that would be inaccurate and i dont want anyone to imply that those could be driving reasons, but. it can sometimes feel like a passing over of the complex gender systems in various human cultures as well

i dunno. nature is very very varied in gender/sex presentation and not even just in animals. why limit your nonhuman species to how human sexes and genders work (and how sexuality works, even). get creative. at the very least if youre going to have gender markers dont make it be the tits humans are like the only species that works like that. come on

which is basically to say why are we giving endermen fucking tits i dont think they even have nipples they might not even be mammals at all i understand projection and all and wanting to show off trans experiences even but like cant we be creative. wouldnt that be nice and fun

[spookyvalentine]

oc profile:

thanks for the tag @aceghosts !! i always have so much fun doing these. imma snag @irikahkrios @battlemastershepard @vizarding @comefeedtherainn​ @yellingaboutmasseffect​ @zet-sway​ and have at it if ye wish me mateys!

General-

Name: mercy shepard (no middle name)

Alias(es): shep, coach (from sports coach au)

Gender: agender

Age: i haven’t quite figured out how long i hc 3 to be, but by the end of it, maybe thirty four, fiveish? if you count the years their body was on the table. mercy... doesn’t really. at least start of 2, when asked their age usually what fell out of their mouth first was thirty one. (for sports coach au they’ve just turned thirty one)

Birthdate: april 11? 2154. day isn’t really known for sure? they were found several days old

Place of birth: unknown! but they were left at st. bernard parish fire department, louisiana while still a fresh baby

Hometown: their most stable home was around lake martin, when they were taken in by the henrys. around thirteen they went to juvie in new orleans, and that started their urban feral teenager life. eventually they move out to another megacity (havent figured out which one yet lmao) and meets kasumi

Spoken language(s): they’re pretty adept without the translator. mercy is fluent in english and creole, passable french and korean, and readily picks up phrases in other languages. after being reconstructed, a translator was literally built into mercy. they resent its presence sometimes.

Sexual preference: open. they’ve been too damn busy to even think to seek out experiences, but aesthetically admire all sorts

Occupation: spectre and alliance officer. enormous pain in the ass before that

Appearance-

Eye color: gold. not hazel or brown ‘til in the light type thing. when anderson first saw those odd lantern eyes it made him think of the foxes that liked to linger at the edges of his parents garden when he was growing up

Hair color: somewhere between summer wheat and spun gold. darkens a little, when not planetside

Height: 6’2 >:)

Scars: they have some from the thresher maw, some acid scars on the left side of their body like thick webbing that cut through parts of a tattoo. maybe got part of their ear. and one they got as a kid that sliced across their face. and then they were rebuilt, and what was left in their place were those glowing lines. (sports coach au they still have the thresher maw scars)

Favorite-

Color: greens

Hair color: favorite hair color on them??? they’ve never dyed their hair before, only crazy haircuts

Song: its not mercy’s favorite song bc i dont know how i’d even choose right, but the song that i have in my head for them is falcon in the dive from the musical the scarlet pimpernel (which fucks severely, also just do yourself a favor and listen to this too because christine andreas makes my heart stop beating. wow. WOW yes i will push it on everyone)

Food: clementines, satsumas, mandarins—any sweet citrus that peels easily (oranges are more work, but will be eaten if they’re around). persimmons, figs. cotton candy flavored grapes. cherries, peaches. they’re a very big fruit bat, basically. they get hype for an alien produce stand

Drink: day to day? chicory coffee, lapsang souchang, soda water. Sometimes lemonade or apple juice. for booze, theyre down for a beer. really likes a good whiskey. delights trying homebrew moonshine. ‘you made it in your bathtub? you went blind for two minutes? hell yeah i’ll have a glass cheers’

Have They-

Passed university: they went through officer academy and all that n7 training, does that count? 

Had sex: once in a relationship w thane, yeah boiii 

Had sex in public: …maybe? that is um. something to explore 

Gotten pregnant: never, also not possible

Kissed a boy: yes, although for these situations ‘been kissed by’ is maybe more accurate

Kissed a girl: yes, see above

Gotten tattoos: yep! they have two large pieces from before being arrested and negotiated into joining the alliance. they start under the jaw and both sides of the neck, going across the shoulders, along and down the arms, coming to an end on the forearms, and they shelled out for that fancy ink, that’s a little bit holographic/iridescent, where the colors would shift and glint in the light as they moved. obviously they’re gone when miranda rebuilds mercy, but they’re absolutely still around in the sports coach au 

Gotten piercings: had a handful of ear piercings as a teen, but has mostly stopped wearing them, for practical reasons 

Been in love: falling in love for the first time 

Stayed up for more than 24 hours: oh lmao yes for sure 

Are They-

A virgin: not anymore babeyyyyy

A cuddler: with people they are very close to

A kisser: oh yeah, big time. really into it now

Scared easily: nope! if anything, has adrenaline junkie tendencies 

Jealous easily: nah. sometimes when they were a teen growing up on the streets, but not anymore

Dominant: in bed? still figuring things out there. maybe sometimes. in life? they’re not domineering, but will shout people down if it comes to it

Submissive: also still figuring that out in bed ;) absolutely not in other situations tho. if theyre being submissive theyre usually up to something 

In love: learning what its like 

Single: not once mercy realizes what they’re feeling for thane (there was a lot of facepalming from kasumi and frustrated yelling on this one)

Random Questions (tw for self harm/suicide mention)-

Have they harmed themselves: i mean, through some of their harebrained, reckless ideas where the possibility of getting hurt is assured but they don’t care, yes

Thought of suicide: maybe a little, after akuze

Attempted suicide: no

Wanted to kill someone: oh absolutely homie

Have / had a job: yeah, pulling peoples heads outta asses

Have any fears: oh for sure, mind control and zombies, and even though now they know how to kill one down absolutely dead--thresher maws 

Family

Sibling(s): none, but kasumi is basically one

Parent(s): unknown. they had some foster parents (adoption was never approved) that offered mercy some important years of shelter

Children: no biological kids. but they feel powerfully parental feelings for grunt, jack and tali. kolyat and oriana too, eventually. in sports coach au though (more details to follow soon), jack is theirs. after akuze they got on the scent of cerberus early, and therefore busted down pragia while jack was still a lil kid, who pretty much imprinted on mercy

Significant other: thane, and in sports coach au, irikah + thane

Pet(s): their fish. they’ve got names like hand roll, don and chip

[invasato]

So you're basically saying since the Skeksis are intersex that means intersex people are bad. Yes the Skeksis have bad traits but so do the Mystics. So do the Gelfling.

[screenshot transcription: Anonymous asked: Honestly, you going "skeksis = villain skeksis = intersex, intersex = evil" is kind of a bad look. That's like saying having a woman as the villain in your story makes you a misogynist." end transcription]

im not having a whole debate over this (and i very much dont appreciate the deliberate misinterpretation of my posts) and i hope you get some genuine insight from what im about to talk about but attaching traits/stereotypes from a marginalized group (or groups) to a villain to further prove how grotesque they are is Bad. the critique of the portrayal of marginalized people/their traits in villainous roles and characters isnt like "being a misogynist" or what have you and if you actually consumed media with a critical eye this would be clear.

you can have a marginalized person as a villain, sure, whatever, but you MUST analyze the intent of that character. WHY did someone marginalized have to be the villain. WHY did traits/stereotypes that marginalized people have get applied to this villain. you cannot just blindly consume whats shown to you in media, its absolutely necessary to properly digest the information and the intent behind characters, in context. this example is a bit ""extreme"" and borrowed from a friend while trying to make my thoughts coherent, but look at buffalo bill in silence of the lambs. hes a transmisognyistic caricature. you are supposed to read read his character and make the connection that "transfemininity is evil and violent and something to mock." you would not turn buffalo bill into a trans icon, or make pride art for the character, because we can recognize that this is actively harmful for trans women. in this case there may have been no deliberate intention to portray a trans caricature, but thats what happened. intent does not negate consequence.

the skeksis are never described as intersex directly by the production team of the movie. theyre called a mix between male and female/genders, and us as the audience are supposed to recoil from that. this is intended to further dehumanize the skeksis for the audience, to make them seem unnatural and scary for the humans watching the film, because obviously only something evil would be like this.

but we, as critical thinkers who presumably give a shit about marginalized people, can look at this and say "wow, this sounds a lot like how people view real life intersex/trans bodies. as inherently evil, for being different." and we, as people with access to the internet, can find a long history of dehumanization of these groups FOR these traits, specifically intersex people since thats your focus here. intersex people are systemically dehumanized by the world, often from birth.

it takes automatic dehumanization to be willing to medically abuse infants, children, HUMAN BEINGS, for daring to have sex variants. it takes automatic dehumanization to immediately assume "alien, monster, not like a person" when you hear of sex variants in media, or "combination of genders," or whatever it may be. it takes automatic dehumanization to see monsters, designed with the sole purpose of being the embodiment of evil, who were described as being a combination to ADD to their monstrosity because the team didnt see marginalized bodies as human, and deciding that youre going to slap an intersex pride flag on them, as was the point of my original posts.

take a long, hard look at why youre so eager to jump to the defense of whats practically a caricature and try to somehow turn this around to be "well YOURE the bad one for seeing marginalized identities/traits put onto genocidal villains, due to bigoted decisions from the production team, taken at face value as cool representation by fans who lack the ability to analytically engage with the media they consume, as a bad thing."

i should not have to explain this all. i will, in the hope someone sees this and understands why these things must be critiqued. i will, because it needs to be said, and i hope youll listen. by no means am i the best at putting my thoughts together, and not every marginalized person is going to monolithically agree about what are essentially portrayals of themselves. but these portrayals MUST be digested critically because they are harming real living people, who are constantly having their identities and bodies and appearances and etc demonized by media inherently associating them with villainy. people get hurt this way. people die this way. there is no consumption in a vacuum. and it is our responsibility as people who consume media to be able to recognize these portrayals and critique and deconstruct them properly, so they arent perpetuated in the future.

[tigerdrop]

hey i just wanna say the long posts genuinely make my day. also can you talk more about gordon freeman character because the way you write him makes me quake in my gay little boots

i would love to talk about gordon freeman. thank u for the opportunity

the first thing i need to communicate about gordon is that this dude sucks. and i say this in the fondest way possible. he is a bitch from the moment he drops into the world until the moment he goes out. if you dont believe me, give it another watch! gordons mouthy and rude for no real reason, at least so far as “being a regular dude on his way into work” goes, and this dude goes around calling his coworkers names with zero provocation. (of course, we all know that the reason is because its a funny guy improv stream that borrows a bit from freemans mind, but im talkin from a character sense.)

but my argument isnt just that gordon freeman sucks. its that he sucks in a very specific way that i find insanely endearing. i love this dude. i love to hate him. hes awful in a very mundane sense - weve all known a guy like this, at least if youve spent too much time online - and its cathartic to watch him suffer because of it.

gordons a smart guy. as written, hes gotta be - hes a recent MIT grad, on his way to work at a top-secret research facility to do weird shit with crystals and theoretical physics. but the thing about smart guys is that theyre often......selectively intelligent. we can see this in the way that he has a hard time navigating his surroundings, and needs the science crew to guide him through it and keep him alive.

this is one of those things that is a natural consequence of somebody going through the game for the first time, but that i am interpreting as “gordon is kind of stupid sometimes”. its uncharitable but its not like he doesnt deserve it. he likes to boss around the crew as if he knows what hes doing, when he often very much does not, and is fond of demeaning their intelligence. hes real bad about this with tommy in particular, treating him like hes a kid whos playing at being a scientist when tommy is actually a decade older than him. all i am saying is that gordon ought to stay humble. hes awful cocky when he perceives himself as better than others.

which, i think, tracks with how cocky he gets when he gives up on the whole “well-meaning citizen” thing and just unloads bullets into people. he puts up a front of being a Nice Guy, you know, just some dude caught in a bad situation who doesnt like seeing his companions obliterate every NPC they come across, but that doesnt stop him from cackling like a fucking madman and mowing down aliens (and soldiers) every once in awhile. when he stops seeing himself as helpless and starts seeing himself as the one in control, the gloves come off. he gets mean. and i think thats very sexy of him

this, among other things, is why i am insistent that gordon freeman is a control freak. he desperately wants to be in control of the situation at all times, shepherding around the science crew primarily by bitching at them, but its of limited success. its futile. sisyphean. tommy, coomer, bubby, and benrey exist almost to torment him with exactly the thing that would make him suffer the most: a gaggle of people running around causing problems for him, but he cant go anywhere without them b/c hes reliant on them to make it out alive.

its perpetual suffering, and its cathartic to watch. and funny, too. and if youre a little weirdo like me, its very, very enjoyable. how twisted up he gets when nobodys listening to him! how sweaty and frazzled he must look. its cute, and it also makes me want to reach through the screen and shake him and tell him to just be a little nicer. he wants control but he doesnt know how to attain it, he doesnt know how to play nice like a real leader. i think its a neat contrast to gordon freeman as we know him in HL2, where he literally is the leader of the resistance and has to live up to it. this is gordon freeman but if he was moe through helplessness.

“helpless” is, i think, a great way to describe him. a core bit of imagery in half life is this sense of railroadedness and helplessness, with gordon freeman being put into play like a chess piece and having no choice but to move forward. and this iteration of gordon leans into that by being totally dependent on the science crew in order to make progress and Not Die. and hes also subject to the whims of benrey, local eldritch weirdo who has basically made it his life mission to fuck with gordon.

gordons anxieties dont help with that. if he wasnt so fun to stress out and fuck with, the science crew probably wouldnt do it so much! too bad for him that they like fucking with him so much that he was driven into a panic attack (multiple times, even, depending on your interpretation). hes got that real neurotic mindset. always worrying about shit that could go wrong, and attempting to exert control over his surroundings in an effort to control the anxiety.

IMO the real way to nail the Neurotic Gordon Freeman Experience is to combine the ever-present anxiety with his pervasive sense of self-loathing. he openly states that he has no friends and nobody seems to like him, and to that, i really gotta say, i wonder why. he doesnt really seem to factor in that hes kind of a bitch, and has way too high an estimation of his own intelligence relative to everybody elses. its really one of the worst ways to be: aware that people dont like you, but unaware of exactly why. if he was like, 10% nicer, he probably wouldnt have had half as many issues getting through black mesa, but also, its funny to see him squawking his way through the game. so, you know.

its stuff like that that makes me headcanon him as a dude with low self-esteem in general. convinced that hes not likable, not attractive, out of his element......impostor syndrome, except that theres some truth to it. this is a guy who truly does not realize how good he has it: he really is just an average shitty dude, and yet, somehow, benrey took a shine to him. some poor motherfucker out there actually likes him and wants to suck his dick. thats dedication

also, i keep bringing up “repression” when i talk about gordon. and hopefully, what ive been talking about helps explain why. he has a strong desire to be a regular dude, not just murdering his way through black mesa, but if hes pushed hard enough he leans into it. gets bossy. picks up a cigar off a dead soldier and takes a long drag, before smacking forzen around with a pistol and ordering him around. gordon freeman is a regular, kind of anxious guy who likes competitive swimming and streaming on justin.tv and making anime references, and he is also a guy who takes a filthy pleasure in making a trained soldier his bitch. and i didnt make up any of this shit - this is purestrain canon, baby. this is a guy with problems

to me, this screams the kind of guy who represses a lot of shit b/c he doesnt feel like its morally decent. you run into this guy a lot online: the wokeboy, the online leftist, the guy who spends too much time on social media websites. (like reddit. i think he would actively use reddit and he would never get any appreciable amount of karma but he never stops posting. its sisyphean! cathartic.) from the way he talks about “bootboys”, i think it tracks. he knows about imperialism, he knows about feminism, but at the end of the day hes your average american white dude who struggles with internalizing it.

a lot of those dudes struggle with sex and gender issues. (dont we all.) when youre trying to be a Good Person(tm), you spend a lot of time thinking about your own relationship to sex and kink and all that shit. and i maintain that a too-online dude who buries a lot of his control freak tendencies would also try to bury a lot of weird sexual shit in an attempt to seem Normal and Well-Adjusted and not like a little freak. i justify this by the sheer number of times gordon blurts out weird sex shit as a joke. there are only two outcomes to making that many piss jokes: either youre secretly a piss guy, or you lathe-of-heaven yourself into becoming one. i will stand by this

ive talked a lot about why this dude sucks. now, let me talk to you about what makes gordon so much fun to write. first things first: hes funny! a subjective evaluation, yeah, but both in- and out-of-character, hes aiming to be funny. and being the straight man to everybody else plays into that whole “helplessness” thing.

secondly: underneath it all, there is a good dude under there. gordon worries when his companions get hurt, he tries to clean them off and patch them up, and hes got his lil leftist heart in the right place. you could even read a lot of his bossy, bitchy demeanor as him wanting to make sure everyone gets out okay and doesnt hurt themselves. when it comes to animals and anti-imperialist sentiment, gordons a pretty good guy.

hes the kind of guy who would probably see a dog on the street and get excited and play with it, but would get really prickly about the correct way to put dishes in the dishwasher. control freak tendencies.

finally, subjecting such a miserable, tormented guy to even more psychological anguish is really, really fun. you feel a little bad for him, but he kind of deserves it. so many problems he goes through are purely of his own making, and if gordon would just relax and quit trying to hard to maintain control - of himself, of the people around him - and own up to having Problems and Issues, he would be a happier guy. but thats why its fun to bend him until he breaks. being a little control freak myself, putting gordon freeman thru psychosexual torment is cathartic.

when it comes to writing his thought processes, the fact that he is canonically some kind of psychotic (yes, i am boldly claiming this. suck me) and i am also canonically some kind of psychotic makes it easier to write what i think his thought processes are. i just give him my brain issues of “getting lost in thought” and “overthinking fucking everything”. a touch of paranoia helps. even if i dont explicitly label him as schizophrenic please know that i am writing him as a paranoid little nutcase at all times because, uh, you write what you know.

paranoid. anxious. of the mindset that everyones out to get him (which isnt helpful when everyone is out to get him). repressed and deeply Not Normal but trying so very fucking hard to be normal and well-adjusted. a control freak with sadistic tendencies who also really, really likes getting bullied by his best frenemy. a hapless little nerd who sounds really cute when his voice starts to break from nerves. and, most importantly, a dumb jock. do not ever forget this.

thats gordon freeman, babey. hope that helps

[its-an-inxp-again]

Hey

Idk if you ever got the answer to your thing. But I’m a person who is queer but regularly uses the term lesbian to make things simpler. I can tell you why I hate the phrase monosexual- it feels transphobic to me- I am not attracted to men at all, but I am attracted to women, non-binary folks, gender queer folks, and agender folks. If I was with a partner and they transitioned to be a man I would still love them. That wouldn’t change. Sexuality is fluid and calling someone monosexual seems to erase that and really put people in boxes. Everyone has exceptions. And as someone who has identified as bisexual and pansexual in the past and find those not to suit me and fit right (especially since I am not sexually/romantically attracted to people physically/based on appearances- it’s more about personality and what I could do with a person)

I don’t mean this in an antagonistic way, I really hope it doesn’t come off that way(I’m bad expressing myself sorry).

(I’m sorry, I know you’re not trying to be rude. My answer, however, will sound rude and upset because you touched upon some stuff that needs a lot of unpacking to me lmao. Just know this anger is not necessarily directed at you but at biphobia in general.)

Why do bisexual people may need to use the term monosexual?

A. It is descriptive

I see what you mean but as you said you're queer and lesbian is a term to make things simpler, right?

So I wouldnt call you monosexual because you’re clearly not attracted to only one gender (but if you want to who I am to stop you?). Monosexual is someone who is almost exclusively dating/is attracted to people of one gender. There are plenty trans people that are straight or gay that would NOT date a partner if they realized they were a different gender. For real: kat blaque made a video (here it is if youre interested) on youtube about this - she’s trans and she wants to date men and wouldnt feel comfortable on continuing dating if a partner of hers realized they were actually a trans woman all along. She wants to date guys not girls and that's FINE it just means A. She actually recognizes the girl gender, obviously B. She's straight af and that's wonderful! It’s not a box if that’s how her experience is and she likes it that way!

Also how is being monosexual transphobic? Cant a girl just like guys exclusively (both cis and trans) or like girls exclusively (both cis and trans)? It's not even enbyphobic since you dont need to be attracted to a person to support their rights. (Gay men arent attracted to women but can be 100% feminists.) Being open to fuck somebody is not the same as supporting their rights: fetishization is a thing. Again, I refer to the video Kat Blaque made.

Sexuality IS fluid but to some people (like me and you) it is more than others. Some people don’t feel comfortable dating people that dont fall into the gender theyre usually attracted to and thats 100% okay.

B. It helps in talking about biphobia and panphobia in society

Biphobia and panphobia are for the large part based on the assumption that you cant be attracted to more than one gender (not even non-binary and so on) and that if you do you're weird/disgusting/mentally ill/a sexual predator. I can tell you 100% that's the narrative both straight and gay people can and may perpetuate since I struggle w this kind of shit every single time Im attracted to someone no matter their gender (YES, EVEN IF THEY'RE A GUY, BECAUSE THE OTHER DAY I WAS ATTRACTED TO A GIRL AND NOW I FEEL LIKE A FUCKING ANIMAL THAT CANT CONTROL ITSELF, even though it makes NO sense because if it was two girls or two boys the actual number of people my hormones activated to wouldnt change, but it would make my experience not subjected to biphobia!). I’m not saying gay people are the same as straight people. But I do feel alienated BOTH from heteronormative society AND from (subtly biphobic) gay spaces because of my bisexuality. I costantly feel like I’m outside both of those worlds and you know how humans are: I just need a term to encompass it all easily, to say “I don’t identify with any of this” (which is both straight and strictly gay spaces: ie, monosexual). To me is literally the same as saying non-bisexual/non-pansexual.

I dont mean to say lesbians or gays have it easier or are just like straight people. But we do have different experiences and I need terms to express that. It honestly doesnt matter to me if you identify as lesbian or queer (though I think you’re implying you’re more queer than anything). But I do need a term to talk about how society at large treats sexuality; ie, as a monosexual thing. Another concept that’s been thrown around is bi erasure. A strictly monosexual society is bound to view a girl dating a girl (or girl presenting) as if theyre both LESBIANS and erase a queer person the moment they’re in a m/f relationship, because people cant COMPUTE that it may not be the case and that the girl dating a cis straight dude isnt betraying her queerness.To think so is basic biphobia.

In some ways, I think it’s the same as when transgender people started using the term cisgender - which is applicable to both straight people and queer/gay people. They simply needed a term which meant “not-trans” as they were saying “I dont identify with this” (ie the cisgender experience). Does it imply that cisgender people, no matter if queer, have something in common? Yeah, yeah it does. Does it imply that queer people are just the same as straight people, or face no oppression? Of course not. Seeing people being offended upon being called monosexual feels like people being offended upon being called cis to me.

Also, saying that the terms bisexual people use are transphobic is almost implying that bisexuality is inherently transphobic? Or reeks to me of that kind of rhetoric. I use the terms I need to use, just like any other marginilized group does, and nobody outside of that group has any right of denying me that. It’s like I’m trying to create a safe space for myself and people like me and yall come around to judge us YET AGAIN. And I'm just tired of hearing this bullshit. I could accept this kind of criticism only if it came from a trans person themselves, I guess? But it’s not usually trans people who accuse us of being transphobic, in fact, many trans people identify as bisexual and use bisexual terminology lmfao.

“Hearts not parts” rhetoric

Finally, about personality being superior to physical appearance. That's amazing but I do want to note that, not you necessarily, but many people who are into the “hearts not parts” rhetoric are, how can I say this. Slut-shaming people? I’m not sure if you are doing this but I feel it needs to be said just to be sure. A lesbian trans woman can be just attracted to a girl for her physical appearance and just want to fuck her - and THAT'S OKAY. That's fine. I am a sexually attracted to people and that doesnt mean I have to form a deep bond first. Sex positivity is about accepting that people can feel like this and not shame them for this. "Hearts not parts” rhetoric has in the past infantilized, sanitized or outright shamed other queer experiences. It's fine if you feel that way but dont start acting like you're morally superior because of that. That's catholicism with extra steps. My bisexuality its not the symptom of some predatory and animalistic thing that should be purified into something more palatable and less sexual. That’s the same thing they used to say about gay people and now gay (biphobic) people are using this against us. That’s also the kind of thing trans women (especially if they’re sapphic) constantly hear every fucking day. Queer people have a good part of their discrimination rooted in the shaming of purely sexual desires. Forcing ourselves to be more palatable and less sexual is just respectability politics. I’m tired of it. (This is obviously different from being on the asexual spectrum: but you dont see ace people going around pretending they’re morally superior than everybody else, and many are actually very sex positive)   You would still love your partner if they were a different gender: that’s great, but that’s not how some (most) people feel, and they aren’t superficial because of this, just different from you.

Also, I think you’d really benefit from hearing a trans person say they don’t care if someone has genitalia preferences. Here it is. This obviously doesnt mean that every trans person will feel like she does, but it does mean that we can’t generalize trans experiences/preferences/what they feel transphobia is. Just like straight people dont get to say what’s homophobic or not, cis people dont get to say what’s transphobic or not. The definition of those terms relies entirely on the community that is targeted by these things.

I hope this wasnt excessively confusing but I wanted to make my point clear.

[leonsi]

just to get this off my mind:

LGBTQ hcs that dont have any actual backing in the show, im just queer and think theyre Neat:

Leo (they/he)

• Not Cis

• what breed of not cis? who knows. not him.

• WAY too much internalized transphobia to actually let themself figure it out

• gay gay gay. captain ryan was their Awakening

• also some form of aspec/arospec. Leonardo ninjaturtle does NOT fuck he dOES NOT -

Mikey (he/she/they/neos)

• DEFINITELY not cis either LMAOO

• genderfluid, but mostly calls himself bigender

• gender hoarder

• also pansexual

• it is a running joke that she couldn't choose and just. Took All of the sexualities/genders

• has taken on the role of being the Queer Expert for his friends/family

> leo came to her near-tears once asking how she knew she was nb and tried to play it off as "just curiosity"

> mikey saw through him ofc and now they bond over being Not Cis and work through their own biases together

Raph (he/him [she/her?])

• settles on genderqueer for a while

• hasn't told anyone else yet, bc he still doesn't really know himself

• doesn't know if it's just gnc or a Gender Thing, doesnt really care (he cares so much)

• eventually mona introduces him to her culture's gender roles (i.e. None) and finds him a salamandrian term that fits

> he still uses genderqueer on earth tho for simplicity

• bi bi bi

• shouted bi rights to casey the second he came to that conclusion as a panic response

> casey agreed w him and raph ALMOST cried

• gray ace

Donnie (he/him)

• HETERO

• ITS SO BAD

• HELP

• ALSO CIS

• WE CANT WIN

• huge ally tho and keeps himself up-to-date on queer history + theory

> he and raph actually bond over the complicated history of gender roles, etc etc

• has had a few. Feelings for casey here and there, but still counts himself heterosexual

Casey (he/him)

• trans guy

• not really open about it to everyone, but he has told them. he jus doesnt like talking about it bc It Is What It Is

• bi with a Large preference for girls

> definitely talks about that omg

April (she/they)

• her gender? Alien.

• jk it's demi girl

• very slight feelings of Non Girl, but enough to make her uncomfortable with being called cis

• also pan, but with MAJOR comphet

• ma'am please stop leading casey + donnie on bc u cant figure urself out

> eventually they all work through it but. Yikes

Karai (she/he)

• she is a THREAT

• doesn't really care about gender (actually)

• HUGE lesbian holy Shit

• Mean Lesbian (affectionate) character trope come to life

• also arospec, but leaning more towards allo than aro

> her and leo make fun of alloromantics together

> and then leo bullies her for being allosexual

Shini (she/they/neos)

• genderdoe

• kind of, she's not really used to this whole "gender" thing

• but from what she can tell she definitely leans towards female/feminine

• also huge lesbian

> men are stinky and she bullies leo for liking them

• allo and is Not safe from leo and karai

[livisart]

oh my god you guys, the new COPPA thing will NOT help children ffs

listen i care a lot about kids safety online, as someone who’s had. very bad experiences on the internet when i was younger, i get it ok. i get it.

but the whole new COPPA thing will not only hurt creators, but will also do more harm than good in helping to keep kids safe.

i see a lot of people painting the FTC as 100% reasonable and youtube as 100% at fault (or conversely, youtube as innocent martyrs and the FTC as evil), personally, i think both the FTC and youtube are at fault here. its reasonable for the FTC to be concerned, but theyre trying to implement laws abt things they dont know anything about, and meanwhile youtube is trying to “solve” this in the worst possible way.

yall are gonna be big mad at me for saying this but. children seeing personalized ads do not hurt them any more than they do adults. let me explain.

(note: before i say anything more i wanna get this out of the way: whether youtube collecting data for ads AT ALL, is bad is a discussion for another day, it’s NOT what we should be focusing on right now, so i will not bring it up in this post)

youtube obviously does not collect this data in the youtube kids app, cuz it’s explicitly made for kids. this is an issue regarding youtube main, specifically, kids under 13 using their parents accounts to watch videos (as a sidenote, the whole thing the FTC were concerned about seems to be youtube collecting data WITHOUT PARENTAL CONSENT, but parents allowing their kids to use youtube main sounds a lot like consent to me. honestly i might b wrong abt this but to me it seems like the easiest way for youtube to solve this problem would be to add smth in their tos abt the data collected and how letting any1 under 13 use the main site = consent to collecting their data, but i digress.)

this means that any information collected is NOT the kids information, but the parents, since the child is using their account. there is absolutely no way to tell if a child or an adult is using the account, hence why youtube is going after “”kids content”” and assuming EVERYONE who watches “”kids content”” is a child (remember that this doesnt only affect like peppa pig episodes and kids nursery rhymes and stuff, but ANY content that youtube n the FTCs vague rules consider ‘for kids’. with that in mind, hopefully i dont have to explain how stupid that is)

lemme repeat there is functionally ABSOLUTELY NO WAY to tell that a child is watching rather than an adult.

there’s also the fact that creators/users on youtube have absolutely no way of accessing the information collected, all we get is vague things like age range, gender, country. we do not get ANY information that’d let us see individual users data, let alone use it to contact them.

but basically, kids information is NOT being gathered, youtube kids does not gather this information, and youtube main gathers the information of the PARENTS, not the kids. so basically, this is a non-issue, and going through with these new regulations to “solve” this non-issue is dumb and jsut hurts EVERYONE.

now, here’s why i believe this will actually do more harm than good:

videos marked as “kids content” will not have personalized ads, meaning their ad revenue will drop with anything from 60-90%

also videos with this marking will not have comments, not be added to any playlists, etc. basically they’ll have less visibility and have a harder time being discovered.

big corporations will find a way to deal with this but smaller kids content creators won’t. many ppl who made content for kids will be forced to quit, since it’s just not sustainable anymore, meaning there’ll be a decrease in quality content for kids to watch.

but it gets worse. since these new rules will also affect “child attractive content”, this will actually give creators incentive to create more mature content to avoid the dreaded “made for kids” checkbox. especially considering any violations of this extremely vague rule can result in a 42k fine PER VIDEO. no one wants that.

so to make sure youtube and the FTC will not consider their content “for kids”, many channels that were previously child friendly (though not directly aimed at children) will start deliberately making their content more mature to alienate kids.

so with actual kids content decreasing, and child friendly content being replaced by more mature content, there’ll be MUCH LESS quality stuff for kids to watch, possibly leading them to watch the new mature content instead, so kids are just gonna risk seeing more stuff that’s harmful to them (with the same personalized ads that were the god damn problem to begin with so like good job on not solving anything)

basically this change will harm creators AND kids and not really help anyone in the long run

now, again i think the FTC and youtube are both at fault here.

youtube because they suck and can’t come up with any better solution.

the FTC because they’re trying to pass laws they know zero about. (seriously. a youtuber n former lawyer went to DC to talk to them abt the new rules and it turns out the FTC are soooo misinformed abt this it aint even funny)

and i’m very tired of people with negative braincells acting like this change is going to help kids at all.

it’s also actually kind of dangerous that ppl are saying “go tell youtube to change things, not the FTC”, because youtube doesn’t listen to ppl.  i thought that much would be apparent by now. youtube does not care abt its userbase.

the FTC, however, does and is willing to take ppls comments til like december 9th so pls go send them a comment.

im not saying you shouldnt blame youtube at all, or ask them to change, but dont just ignore the FTC’s role in this pls.

[felidfavs]

oh man theres that tiktok rn where a nonbinary person is expressing their annoyance with certain nonbinary community subsets and ive been trying SO HARD not to comment on it but hHHHHH.

On one hand i completely get where they are coming from and its definitely A Thing so like no shade to that persons experiences and the video itself isnt outright disrespectful at all but GOD does it rub me so wrong.

like im also not fond of the sound and feel of enby, and people can totally like or dislike it and no one should force it on anyone else for sure! But the only reason it sounds "infantile" is because of the whole "kiki vs boba" concept where certain sounds, along with conventions in the english language like short syllables and stuff being associated with endearments and softer concepts and objects- theres nothing else about it that means that. Even if you take it out of verbal and write it "NB" that removes a lot of the softness- which is why when its a problem its always phoneticized. because "NB" isnt the FEELING of the sound youre hearing.

But that thing where people dont want to be infantalized (valid) being combined with people not wanting to be associated with "weird" "cringe" or "childish" things like associating with concepts like animals or fantasy creatures or objects... ends up feeling SUPER misogynistic and ableist to me?

The people who relate to raccoons and gremlins and shit arent doing it to be quirky and childish. Theyre doing it because of a fucking destroyed relationship with being able to identify with other human beings and reclaiming and playing with that alienation and expression. Theyre doing it because anytime you get remotely into the ballpark of an aesthetic claimed by a large enough group of a certain gender, their identity is once again questioned and people start treating them as THAT and not as THEM.

And like. I get that. I'm not huge on it myself but I literally have multiple "sona" characters based on dead cats because of struggling with derealization and depersonalization and depression and my identity and shit like. i really fucking understand wanting nothing to do with being perceived as anything remotely close to your physical self and thus distancing really hard from "normal human".

And then it also kicks into the ballpark of how a lot of neurodivergent people do similar and thats constantly trashed and bullied for being weird and abnormal. And given how theres a HUGE, HUUUGE problem with how people assume everyone whose nonbinary is afab... and specifically even in that video the person was kinda coming from a "why is that SIDE of the nb demographic like this why are the ""transmasc/amab""* types alienated" like, just, makes me flinch into...

is this another young ""women""(not women) cant be interested or do literally anything without being mocked? cause it has some of that flavour! With a little bit if "these """women""" arent nonbinary they just want to be weird and not beholden to the label of women" its just! mm! dont like it. (* also with the nod that is NB and necessarily any desire to be associated with those labels)

But yea. I donnnttt like it. I get where theyre coming from and super agree that if they feel like they cant be welcomed into the community or actively alienated thats an issue for sure! But I also super dont like the feeling of the video that the problem causing that issue is that theres some sort of monolith nonbinary culture that is cringey and should be minimized or downgraded in any way. From my understanding the joy of being nonbinary is that its usually an intentional departure from being able to be defined by your expression in the world and activities and roles and that you literally can not typify what it means to be nonbinary and thus anything goes.

So to me that person just... needs to find theyre bubble and fortify their comfort and security in what their identity means to them and find people who reinforce that euphoria for them. Cause like. As a nonbinary person who barely does fuck all irl to """seem nonbinary""".... can confirm we exist. No one defines nonbinary. People who try are usually trying simply to other themselves from it, because you cant other yourself or someone else until you have a definition. And othering isnt necessarily bad, but do it with love and intention. Your other is not meant to be your enemy.