#this fandom needs more native rep

[athena-xox]

How I imagine Septima Vector since y’all sleep on her

First off, lemme make one thing clear. SHES NATIVE AMERICAN. the native rep in this fandom is so lacking. My fancast is Amber Midthunder but she’s not really how I imagine Septima.

Septima was tall, skiny and gangly. She had bronze coloured skin with a deep tan. Dark eyes. Very angular features. Also long hair that she never cut (for cultural reasons) she would often wear in a braid.

Her parents were older when they had her. Her mother had six miscarriages before Septima. Her mother was also the seventh daughter. And she was born 7/7. So that’s where Septima comes from. (Septima means seven)

Big family in the states but her father was offered a job in the uk so they moved there. Her parents appreciated academics (they both fought in ww2 and were very anti violence).

She was sorted into ravenclaw and was four years older than the marauders. She was very anti social and didn’t have any friends. She didn’t like anyone at hogwarts.

In the summers she would visit her family and was a totally different person. She was really good with kids and would often tutor kids in her neighbourhood.

Love life: I think she had a summer romance with Aurora Sinistra (she is not in snapes gang!!) but was overall an August in the situation. Also I love the idea of her and Narcissa. Like both second choices that find solace in each other. Also I do hc that when Septima and Aurora both became teachers that they had second chance romance.

Septimaurora/astrolmancy/sevendawn for Septima x aurora

Sepcissa for Septima x Narcissa

She would always wear muted colours. And golden jewelry, often carved by her family. Rbf + sarcastic. Her patronus was an eagle. Oak wand 9 inches with a phoenix feather.

CHARITY WAS HER YOUNGER COUSIN. Idc I will not budge on this. Native cherry supremacy!!

Also she is so Anti Hero coded!!

[froschli96]

As an asexual Good Omens fan

There's something I've noticed in this fandom that makes me really uncomfortable, and that is the way that Crowley and Aziraphale's possible asexuality is constantly being connected to and justified by them being not human.

I just honestly really hate that, because implying that asexuality is something that somehow "logically" follows from characters being nonhuman is ... not great. Like, I hate having to be the one to point this out, but asexuality is, in fact, very much a human attribute.

And unfortunately, most of the time when I come across this take, it doesn't feel like someone seeing themselves in the characters and relating to their experience, but rather an othering, this kind of otherwordly pure non-sexualness, where people put these characters above such trivial things like sexuality.

I am not asexual because I am somehow confounded by this oh so complicated human concept of sexuality, or because I don't ever think or care about sexuality at all (a lot of thinking was unfortunately involved actually before I finally came to a conclusion about my identity) it is just a fact of who I am, as a human being, it’s a part of my human experience.

And let's be honest, attributing asexuality to nonhuman characters is not the hot new take a lot of people seem to think it is — this trope has been around for ages. And it hasn't done a great deal to normalize asexuality. In fact I'd argue it's perpetuated an othering of ace people, but you take what you can get, really. (This is not to say that it is in any way wrong to identify with these kinds of characters, I definitely do, too! It's just sad that the topic of discussion is always about how "human" someone can be considered when they don't feel sexual or romantic attraction)

To be honest, I don't actually see A&C being asexual as canon — as a lot of people seemingly do — just because the author kind of suggested it in a tweet where he basically conflates "asexual" and "sexless" (for the record, this is not a dig at Neil, I just think the implications were kind of unfortunate, even if it might not have been intentional, which makes it all the more frustrating that a lot of fans just ran with it). And yeah, going around calling people aphobic for seeing the Ineffable Husbands as gay rep or any other identity, when they’re oh so obviously canonically ace, is honestly kind of insane.

I get that it might feel nice and tempting to be able to "claim" these characters and this relationship and being able to tell other fans off whose headcanons on their sexuality differ from your own because it is hard to come by any kind of representation when you're ace and there's finally a creator who's not only not contemptuous towards but even supportive of fans reading his characters as queer. And if you feel represented by A&C as it is then all the more power to you. But the thing is, it doesn't matter what kind of justifications there are or what canon might or might not say (bc when has that ever mattered in fandom spaces) or what the creator says, you cannot convert people to your opinion about a character, and you're going to have a bad time if you spend your time in fandom trying to do that.

And really, I am just wondering why we necessarily even need an explanation or justification for them possibly being asexual. Why does it have to be that all angels and demons are asexual by virtue of being nonhuman, and so A&C have to be too? why can't that just be an aspect of them that is completely unrelated to them not being human? Could these characters maybe not simply identify as asexual, not because they're nonhuman, but in spite of it? (btw, in the same vein it is equally stupid to argue that A&C can't be ace because they have "gone native", which is also an argument I've come across)

Honestly, I'm not even asking anyone to fundamentally change how they see these characters here — if you think they must be asexual solely because they're angels and have no concept of human sexuality, then whatever, I can't stop you and I don’t want to police anyone's headcanons bc as I said that's stupid and a waste of time. What I am asking you is that you maybe reflect a little bit on why exactly it is that humanity and sexuality are somehow so intrinsically linked in your mind to the point where you automatically use it as a way to distinguish between human and nonhuman characters.

Anyways.

Tldr: please stop equating asexuality with non-humanness thank you and good day.

[punkeropercyjackson]

Children's media can absolutely and does radicalize kids when written correctly,it's just that shitty bigoted adults in fandoms deliberately misenterpret their messages and trick them into believing they're canon and that's how we got here.Bleach had Ichigo be a goth punk dude who's a fantastic older brother and choose his female love interest because she's his best friend and he finds her weirdgirlness to be enchanting which is good rep for us because being punk is about nonconformity and so is the fact that he never joined the military system his species was largely a part of because he didn't give two shits about them but over half the fandom is convinced the mangaka is a 'sellout' and 'pandering' for not making him essentially a paranormal cop for the sake of pairing him up with the fem mc that he has a familial and queerplatonic relathionship with as confirmed by the aformentioned mangaka

Pjo had Percy hate the gods as much as Luke does and act on it too but directly TO them instead of grooming younger halfbloods to work for him as soldiers and in fact he basically adopted every one of them he came across as his siblings and pseudo-kids and this is explicitly framed as why he's a hero and Luke's evil but you see nonstop erasure of his anti-corruption and anti-authority mentality and direct action despite being his core character traits to make him more palpable as an 'average fantasy protagonist' when the point of him is that he's not normal in any way

The Owl House had 3/5 of it's mcs be poc with the two white ones being an autistic and ocd lesbian and the other a disabled boy with zero conventionally physical traits that're never made out to be ugly and the protag is an inmigrant afrolatina girl while the big villain is a puritan colonizer and every single ship on the show is queer including the m/f one and the token white boy has almost all the important characters to his arc being black and the only one who isn't is a fat asian girl who's also disabled but the HUGE amount of positive rep in the show is deliberately taken out of context for bad faith critisism by a bunch of 20/30/even 40 year olds who've never written actual good stories themselves and this includes them adoring and gushing over the colonizer guy while dismissing the poc and women in the cast as irrelevant

Across the Spiderverse had an EXTREMELY black in every way character literally named SpiderPUNK who makes his beliefs clear in every single one of his lines and isn't all talk for a single second but he's reduced down to 'annoying edgy older brother figure' and made to listen to Taylor Swift and go to Hot Topic and called 'obviously a skater boy' and every other poser punk trope in the books

Atla had Aang and Katara be a gnc boy of a lesser known type of asian race and Katara a brownskin native girl that reclaims femininity for herself with their character drives being to save the world with Zuko's arc hammering it in again and again that while he always had good in him,he WAS evil,he DOES have a lot of bad traits and that made him do a lot of bad things and THAT'S why he needed a redemption arc to be a hero but Aang gets called racist for following the buddhist belief that in-universe he was sole remaining follower of that killing humans is bad,Katara gets adultified and stripped of her actual personality to make her just 'hashtag relatable teen gurl' and Zuko gets infantalized and upholded as the least problematic character in the whole show

And my last and not quite like the rest example is Harry Potter,including the spinoffs and fanon.Everything in it is neoliberal bs and the fandom just made it worse-Oh,the house that's a metaphor for fascism and white supremacy legacies?They're just misunderstood little babies and every minority-coded🥺The lower class family who canonically were Jkr's best attempt at good people that still flopped?Awful homophobic bastards😡All the female characters?Perfect slay 'You can't sit with us' girlboss,precious little baby angel who can't tie her shoes without her reverse harem's help or manipulative self-obsessed hyperfemme pick me,those are the only three categories they can ever fall in.Marauder's Era not only existing but being very,VERY popular is nothing but whiteness-What is there for you to be attached to there exactly?With the canon cast i can least see why you'd have nostalgia but M Era is literally nothing.You just CHOOSE to pick a franchise that's violently bigoted towards basically everyone and who's creator actively influences and helps caused that hurt irl oppressed groups instead of making ocs since you're already building them from scratch anyway

It's not the fault of actual good creators and especially not kids in fandom that grown ass bootlickers couldn't accept that their precious 'escapist comfort media' isn't apolitical at all instead of absorving it's messages like they should have since they have no care for other people despite insisting how kind and unproblematic they are

[saintsenara]

What I really struggle with in HP is JKR's shallow neoliberal world-building, and how it forces characters to navigate it quite awkwardly. As a big fan of the werewolf lore, I hate what she did there. I want to accept some of the self hatred and oversimplification of the society as complexities of the characters, but some of it also just feels like bad writing. Of course I am a bit of a Lupin stan and I'll do some gymnastics to try to make him a better man/werewolf than he'd ever be (I like to picture him as kind of a Union rep), but I don't know, I just really feel like canon is lacking. Am I just not a great reader?

no, i don't think you're a bad reader, anon.

when it comes to worldbuilding, jkr is certainly no tolkien - a lot of the inconsistencies in canon [i.e. why dumbledore flies to the ministry in philosopher's stone] come from her not having the world fully mapped out prior to writing, and, while this isn't as much of an issue as the fandom makes out [lots of authors adapt their worldbuilding as they go along!], it's definitely exacerbated by the fact that she has a tendency to claim certain inconsistencies were intentional.

the series' politics are also clearly incredibly neoliberal. and part of this [such as the fact that the order is defending the "sensible" status quo] is obviously a bleed-through from jkr's worldview, and i think it's legitimate to acknowledge and criticise that and how it manifests itself in the doylist text.

nonetheless, i think it is worth saying that the fandom has a tendency to criticise aspects of the text which ought instead to be understood as intentional spaces we can devote our energy to filling in. the genre conventions of the series require it to become an uncomplicated good-versus-evil trajectory which ends with all being well - and i do think that, when we're criticising jkr's writing, it's important to acknowledge that the ending of the series feels unsatisfactory because it does these conventions properly, rather than in spite of that fact. similarly, the reason that apparently key aspects of wizarding society [law, politics, etc.] don't get discussed in detail is because they're not the series' focus - i've mentioned elsewhere that i'm obsessed with the concept of wizarding medicine, and that i find the way this is presented in the series really shallow, but i recognise that this is because medicine isn't something the series wants to focus on. order of the phoenix is too long as it is - we don't need 200 more pages of detailed descriptions of how healers learn their craft...

and so i think it's fun for us to work in our own writing to make the worldbuilding feel a bit more cohesive.

the easiest way i've found to square this circle with the watsonian text is to recognise that harry is a partial narrator. he's someone with an incredibly self-serving, black-and-white moral code; he's incredibly privileged within wizarding society and comparatively privileged within muggle society [by which i don't mean that he isn't neglected by the dursleys, but he's also canonically white, able-bodied, cisgender, a native english speaker, well-educated, raised in a middle-class household and so on] and, therefore, never has to actually think about the politics and structure of wizarding society; and he's also a teenage boy, which explains him not being particularly observant or politically aware.

[the best example of this is, of course, that he doesn't give a shit about sirius' treatment of kreacher - because he likes sirius - and he doesn't consider his own mastery over kreacher to be a moral abomination - because he's shown to not really understand the broader social impact of slavery - but he detests the malfoys' treatment of dobby entirely and only because he dislikes the malfoys.]

his attitude towards lupin - and his attitude towards werewolves more generally - can be made sense of through this, i think. harry doesn't care about the broader state-sanctioned oppression of werewolves because it doesn't impact him, he cares about lupin's experience because it does; harry doesn't notice the imperialist overtones to lupin's self-presentation [that is, that he bears "the unmistakable signs of having tried to live among wizards"] and considers lupin's embrace of "civilisation" to be a good thing [in comparison to werewolves like greyback, who reject it] because it's what he personally considers legitimate; harry focuses on specific aspects of lupin's character because he's not a omniscient perspective - he's a [canonically short-sighted] teenage boy.

[felicitousfeline]

y'know i totally understand why so much transmasc transition stories in fiction have the cutting of the hair as a major component, i really do, but i kinda wish there was more rep for dudes who specifically embrace long hair in a masculine context. as a guy who's largely a fan of rock, raised by fans of rock, dudes with long hair are excellent models of masculinity to me. my dad had long hair unless he was working a job that required it short. despite that and being about 5'8" nobody who knew him would ever have called him effeminate. why shouldn't i get to follow in his footsteps? why do all of my media role models tell me implicitly that i need to sacrifice one of my favorite physical characteristics for a "complete" transition?

and beyond that, i know there are guys out there who have deeper cultural reasons to want to keep their hair long. where's the rep for native American transmascs for whom long hair may be an important cultural element regardless of gender? black American transmascs for whom long braids or locs can be just as masculine as a short haircut? I can't speak to their experiences myself but I'm sure there are other people just as frustrated abt it for their own reasons

I guess what I'm saying is that even tho we have a little more transmasc rep in media and fandom these days it currently displays a very specific (and usually white, middle class, mainstream) experience of transmasculinity, and I'd definitely like to see it branch out and diversify. Give me stories where the guy's decision not to cut his hair despite social pressures is just as significant as the decision to cut it in others.

[punkclownfreak]

one piece characters that i desperately need more of

buckle up. this is a long post because i’m gonna pick one from almost every arc i’ve seen so far. i’m an absolute fiend for characters with little to no screen time, so this is my way of showing love to some of the minor characters from one piece !!

koby

i know he shows up from time to time, but i would really like more of him. he’s so sweet and cute and i’m a kobylu truther and i need him to give up being a tool of the state so he can sail the seas with his boyfriend and his boyfriend and his boyfriend and-

vivi

i know she eventually shows up again, but i so badly wish she joined the straw hats. this list is kinda becoming “characters i wish were straw hats/that i ship with straw hats,” but i promise a lot of the characters are here for other reasons besides those two !! but yes, namivivi is so real it hurts. i remember virtually mourning the loss of vivi when she didn’t join the strawhats, even though i knew it was coming. i will rep namivivi til the day i die.

wyper

wyper is the reason i made this list. he means everything to me. he is the best native rep i have seen in anime and it hurts me how under loved he is in the fandom. people call him annoying or too violent but he perfectly captures the rage that builds when people have had to live under colonization for generations. he is so close to my heart and i’m slowly starting a collection for him so i can make a wyper ita bag !! i just want to see more of him, whether he show up to say hi to the strawhats every hundred eps or so, or if they cut back to skypeia to show how they’re doing, i just miss him so much. anyone who says to skip skypiea is at best stupid and at worst a racist freak that hates native people.

kiwi & mozu

these literal queens are the other reason i made this list. i love them so much and they’re just so funny. they’re amazing sisters and i wish we could see more of them !!

cindry

she is adorable and so so tragic. i don’t necessarily wish she continued showing up in the series, i just wish we had more of her in thriller bark. they don’t really explain the whole “her body remembers who she was even though her soul is gone” thing and i wish they explored that more. she’s also absolutely hilarious and i wish she was more loved in the fandom, despite how small a character she is (though i know she does have a few die hards).

shakky

she’s just literally so cool. she’s gorgeous and her relationship with rayleigh is amazing. they love each other so much but they both give each other enough space to do pretty much whatever they want !! their relationship seems to be somewhat canonically open since she flirts with brooke and i just think she’s a really cool character. also she used to be queen of amazon lily ?!?? how fucking cool is that !!

queen iva

i know her legal name, but most of her friends call her iva so i will too. she is a star, and i absolutely love her. i want more of her so bad, i want her to be a reoccurring character and I WANT IT NOW. not much else to say, she just slays so hard.

madam shyarley

why was she such a minor character ? she had such a cool character design, is the sister (i’m not sure if by blood or by adoption/found family) of arlong, and has fortune telling powers, for what ?!?? three episodes ?!?? a tragedy. she deserved better.

aaaand now we’re all caught up !! i haven’t finished punk hazard yet so i’m going to finish here !! i’ll try to remember to do another one of these once i’m caught up !!

[barzfrommarz]

i’m gonna be fr with y’all rn people who still cling to dsmp fans dni need to move on

‼️Q//SMP AND QUACKITY NEG‼️

Start putting q//smp fans dni instead because those mfs are way worse

starting with the server they had issues with a racist mod towards natives and that was never adressed and it was even brushed off by some members

Ay//pieree is the biggest piece of shit yet continues to be allowed in the sever that supposed to be diverse and welcoming. This mf even had quackity give out a shitty ass apology for him and continues to be a piece of shit with no reprocussions

Ce//llbit admitted to abusing his partner and stayed silent when his fans harassed her. I don’t care if he is doing better you are still giving a large platform to a fucking abuser and I can’t image how it would feel to see your abuser being successful after all the shit they put you through

Sli///me literally said “If someone doesn’t get along with q they are the problem” LIEK EXCUSE MEEEEE?!!?!?!?!!! Q//uackity has been known for just dropping cc friendships when they stop benefiting him and his platform. He has done it twice not just dteam. Like be so fucking fr rn

The fans are literally just all of the ex dsmp loreheads who basically ruined the fandom for a while and funny enough the dsmp fandom was suddenly way more nicer and open to people who weren’t just c!tommy apologists once the qs//mp started and everyone flocked to it to start more discourse about the lore

The server barley counts as rep imo. Huge majority of white men. Barley any queer people and no dark skinned people.

I’m not they type of person to be like “_____ fans dni” but if you are the type I suggest it bc I wouldn’t want that shit anywhere near me considering the fans. But not on safe spaces because we aren’t about to exclude a bunch of queer, neurodiverse, people of color etc from what is supposed to be a safe space. Everyone needs and is entitled to a safe space

I could go on but this rant is long enough so don’t find my fucking address please

[uselessheretic]

It’s really unnerving to see people still subtly pushing the conspiracy theory that guz khan leaving is linked to Palestine, especially since it will just casually be dropped in among sentiments that TW is anti-Black, as if it’s some inherent quality of his rather than specific criticisms of RD. Do anti-semitic assumptions just somehow not exist when when we’re talking about fandom bigotry?

oh my god the way people talk about guz khan is sooo weird. like i LOVE ivan i ADORE ivan and i LOOOVE guz khan but theres zero reason to assume that a side character being cut is tied to a racist decision on the creators part especially when we already know that s2 has received budget cuts.

like guz ending his tweet threat by going back to his activism just doesnt read as him subtly trying to signal to the fans that he was cut for advocacy. people were trying to tie this to con too which?????? why would he have a say and also he seems friendly with guz???????

or trying to say its proof that taika is pro israel with "you can tell bc taikas never spoken about palestine" when honestly? i think taika is one of the few celebrities where he probably should not talk about palestine! i think it could potentially be detrimental where people would go hard on him being an antisemite and itd take focus away from palestine. like honestly him being quiet on it is fr for the better? and i dont see why we would assume the worst in him when his politics around indigenous activism would point towards him more likely leaning toward being pro palestine like id be shocked if he was a zionist.

also reservation dogs being used as proof that taika is antiblack is soooo wild because 1. the way people talk about RD is literally so overblown because i think it can be improved and theres legit criticisms around the lack of lack of black native representation, but overall its like? fine? people make it sound like its built on constant antiblackness and it just isnt. the main issue is fr a lack of diversity which isnt the worst thing in the world and is not bad enough to encourage people to not watch the show because RD is a reaaaally good show 😭 but its also funny bc for the critique its also something that like... isnt even taikas fault really lmao like its his show too but that responsibility imho lands a lot more heavily on the co-creator where taika has said that he took a step back from writing to leave it to the indigenous american writers to portray their experiences. idk like i think ppl overstate his culpability in that when its more accurately his co creators responsibility who has like? gotten black native rep in the writers room in response.

anyways reservation dogs is really good and people need to chill with guz khan because i think the fans are making it worse bc its always possible he could come back for a third season but that gets less likely w the way fans are reacting like this :(

[dotthings]

It seems the Nexstar acquisition of CW is near completion.

A summary: Nexstar takes a 75% stake, Paramount Global (which owns CBS, which co-owns CW) and Warner Bros Discovery (which recently acquired WB, which co-owns CW) with 12.5% each. Instead of paying cash, Nexstar would take on the network losses which are over $100 million per year.

Some ramblings:

Previous industry spec was Nexstar mostly be interested in CW’s digital assets—streaming. Now the reporting says Nexstar is interested in making CW a “fully sustainable broadcast network" which changes the spec a bit.

Reminder again, it's important NOW to support the kinds of shows you want to see more of, and going forward. While their streaming value still matters, the emphasis on a fleshed-out broadcast network means Nielsen ratings get more weight.

I'm just throwing around spec myself, but it seems unlikely Nexstar is therefore going to ditch scripted programming to become a 24/7 conservative news platform like I saw tossed around as an idea on twitter.

And I'd be careful about making hard assumptions on what kinds of scripted programming they want. Yes, they want to tilt older and the “homeland-heartland” spec from last year might be a factor and we know what that means. But to be a successful broadcast network, they need a variety of programming, appeal to different demos and different interests. If Nexstar accounting sees diverse shows as money-makers, they'll be assets. It comes down to money. If they think they can make a profit, they’ll still want those shows, not solely series that appeal to a middle aged straight white male demo.

Long term, I think WBD and Paramount want their shows on their own native platforms.

Short term, I don’t think that’s happening yet, but...it's a real thing.

SPN on HBO Max isn’t a fandom pipe dream, down the line this could actually happen.

Anyway, CW was never a full network. It has no studio of its own. It’s a delivery platform for WB and CBS, effectively a loss-leading tax shelter, and I don't think they cared about it much, or about the quality of the programming or marketing. The model wasn’t sustainable. It was never profitable.

CW had some great moments and great shows, there are some talented creative people and actors who have worked there, I'm not here to put down people's shows. But it often was a dumpster fire, across shows. Which is why a lot of us fans cold turkey boycotted it. Why there's been a lot of rage and backlash, from more than one fandom.

I ended my boycotting--which I stuck with for a year--because of the announced sale. It opened up the chance for a clean-up and needed changes.

No it isn't because of my faves. But I feel a lot better about the projects my faves are involved in because when I settled down to watch some shows I chose for targeted support, I found a lot of improvement. I’m not knocking the diversity that was there before, but the intersectionality, the depth of the usually under-represented pov's, is going farther. There used to be a lot more tokenization, more mishandling, or half-way good and bad.

There’s also a recent vibe of “no such thing as too much rep” which is refreshing to see. Shows that started out diverse keep adding more.

The shows I’m supporting: Kung Fu, All American (and I will be watching All American: Homecoming), Nancy Drew, Tom Swift (please, please check out Tom Swift, it’s a goddamn DELIGHT). I’ll be watching The Winchesters — which looks like a promising start to a far more expensive and inclusive SPN universe, as well as giving us some much needed Dean pov after the disastrous finale — and Gotham Knights — which intrigues me as a dc fan as a sort of elseworlds type scenario, and centers queer characters, women, women of color, PoC, along with having the treat of Misha Collins portraying Harvey Dent.

(There’s still some tokenization, on some shows, mixed with at least some attempts to do a little better, it’s not perfect across the board).

Other thing to note: The death of the Arrowverse wasn’t really because of the sale. I think that ‘verse winding down was inevitable, after many years and lbr--declining quality, and I'm saying this as a former big fan of the Arrowverse shows. That was also WBD and DC wanting an overhaul of the DCEU. Arrowverse had some great shows, but they were underperforming by DCTV standards. No, CW did not cut those series to get rid of the diversity, if you look at the new gen diverse CW series that line of thinking makes no sense. It was a cull based on lowest performers, and a DC show with a diverse cast—Gotham Knights—was added.

I'm here to support the shows and the people who make the shows, I don't stan for corporations. Some fans seem to think their brand loyalty should be to CW and they evangelized in a baffling way, but their brand loyalty was not to CW. It was to a particular show, or a set of shows, it's brand loyalty to franchises, and sometimes it's brand loyalty to a favorite actor. Don't get mixed up about this.

And if things go fully pear-shaped with Nexstar, I'm happy to support those shows on other platforms.

[olderthannetfic]

The anon who complained about RRverse being racist in it's rep clearly doesn't know anything. The Muslim girl having a betrothed when she was so young is something that still happens in some countries. My mother used to work for an NGO and she herself described to me how she failed to stop an 13 year old Muslim girl from getting married. At least Sam doesn't have to marry Amir until they're both adults and she actually likes him, and the marriage is consensual with both partners. And having a betrothed at such a young age IS considered bad. The main character, Magnus, is actually angry and wants to beat said betrothed up until he is told that Sam loves him and doesn't mind it. Saying that things like having a betrothed don't exist is dumb. They do. They might not exist where anon lives, but they do. Being 'ridiculously subservient to her grandparents'? Anon needs to meet a conservative desi family... And about the hijab, I hate to tell anon but some of us don't mind wearing a hijab. Some wear it voluntarily, so it follows that it is up to us when to remove it if our families are not conservative.

For the Black girl who has golden eyes, her eyes are golden because of her being a daughter of Pluto. That's like, common for ALL demigods. Every demigod gets their eyes from their godly parent. Hazel has golden eyes because of her ancestry and not racism like anon thinks. Her sibling, Nico, an Italian, has black eyes because he is a son of Hades and not Pluto (they are different aspects of the same god in the books). Hades represents death, while Pluto represents riches, which is why even their powers are different in canon. Same with the Native American. She gets her kaleidoscopic eyes from her mom. This is true for EVERY demigod.

I'll agree with the Asian part that he shouldn't have gotten buff just like that, but him being with Hazel isn't racism, and anon is wrong when they say he's 17 when Hazel is 13, I believe he is 15. RR is terrible with dates and employs a floating timeline so it's hard to say who is exactly how old, so there's a lot of discourse on how old the Asian boy (Frank) actually is, but he was definitely NOT 17. Also, I think this has more to do with RR not realizing that a 2-3 year old age gap might be a big thing for teens more than sexualization of Black people.

The Latino boy is 15 and speaks Spanglish. What's wrong with that? Anon assumes that everyone speaks English perfectly on entering the States. The part where the boy describes in his POV how he and his mom used to switch languages while speaking actually is quite familiar because we speak 3 languages at home and switch mid-sentence.

The Native American being a kleptomaniac is... also not too big of an issue? All demigods have a problematic tendency. The main character, Percy, once almost blew up his goddamn school. Another murdered her own dad. The Latino boy mentioned above accidentally burnt his mom to death. The Cherokee girl stealing stuff for attention is almost tame compared to that. As for the revealing dress thing, it happens to all children of Aphrodite, even the white ones so....(throws hands in despair). I'd love to hear what problems anon has with The Kane Chronicles but I have a feeling I'm not going to agree with them if this is the standard that anon is pushing.

Honestly, this is why I quit the PJO fandom on tumblr. The antis drive me mad because of stupid points like this. Is RRverse perfect and 0% problematic? No, of course not! No series can be 100% unproblematic. There are some issues with the RRverse. But these people confuse lack of knowledge with malicious intent, and it's dumb as hell. I'd rather have someone who actually doesn't want to hurt anyone but doesn't know the correct terms for it than someone who knows all the buzzwords but means none of them.

--

Anon took a couple of fair points (I do think the formal betrothal is a little weird in the context of a teenager living in Boston and the parents hinting but not making it an actual betrothal would have worked better)... but then they wrapped them up in a thick coating of nonsense.

It sounded like their issue with the Kane Chronicles was not liking the "lololol, Memphis!" thing it was doing. But sticking African Americans together with Ancient Egypt is just an American thing. I wouldn't necessarily give the book to Egyptian kids, but it's fine in the context it was intended for.

It was so obviously a regurgitated list of every item anyone ever told them might stick.

[acesydneysage]

The end goal of representation politics, as flawed as it can be, isn't to abolish acting and to have characters only be played by people exactly like them. There's a specific history of oppression that makes certain things problematic. That's why whitewashing is a thing and blackwashing is not.

Cultural erasure is sad and disappointing, but the reason people don't treat it as something as bad as whitewashing is because it's categorically not, it does not have nearly the same history of violence attached to it.

The US doesn't have a history of minstrel shows about eastern Europeans. There isn't a problem with lack of pale skin representation. If what you're interested in is pale skin and not actually a complex portrayal of Slavic cultures, there's plenty of content for you out there.

There can be perfectly valid and respectful critiques, expressed politely. Russians have actually being demonized on Western media, so I understand wishing for a Russian actor, I did too. But it's more a matter of authenticity in the portrayal, having a different type of white guy play Dimitri is not whitewashing. But you can be wary about how good a job he can do, certainly.

As for Rose, I wish her Turkish ethnicity had been actually represented, and you can be black and have Turkish heritage at the same time. That would have been cool, but it's not the actress' background as far as I know. I don't know if casting would be different under different circumstances, without covid restrictions, but it is what it is. I wished she had been Turkish in the movie too, but I still watched it, and I think Sisi will make a beautiful Rose.

To be honest, a lot of Turkish people look white to me, but if their experience is racialized in the US I won't erase that. But I think they look white to a lot of people who are raging right now too, because lots of them are much more focused on the exact shade of Rose's skin than in her actual heritage, funny that. Or they're praising white actresses who are also not Turkish at all. Very intriguing. The things people will pretend to care about in order to dress up their racism in social justice language are astonishing.

And Lissa was never albino, btw. Would be cool to have more rep for that, but she wasn't it. Most other characters are American, and they're descended from Europeans because that's how white Americans work, it's stolen land, they aren't native to it.

Hopefully the writers of the show will do alot of research and know what they're talking about, and portray the slavic inspiration of the books in the respectful and complex way these beautiful cultures deserve.

But you know what other culture the books draw heavily from too? You know what these books written by an American woman that deal with racism as one of their central themes also take inspiration from? The culture and oppressive structures of the country she lived in her whole life.

The oppression suffered by dhampirs is very related to racism and specially antiblackness/misogynoir experienced by people in real life, so using their plight for inspiration while featuring next to no black people in the books isn't great. I'm happy they're changing that at least, it's an improvement. I think the themes of the books could be enhanced by these choices.

The same way, if we get to Bloodlines, if you're gonna have a conversion therapy inspired plot you should have more queer rep. If the main couple draws from the struggles faced by interracial and queer couples, there should be more representation.

The cast looks beautiful and I need to see them actually acting to know if they're good. You're allowed to care about external descriptions of the characters. But in my opinion capturing the spirit of the character is much more important, and real life sociopolitics should be taken into account.

You can't please everyone, and you're never gonna get exactly what's in your head. But most of the fandom is grown adults now, and you should be able to handle disappointment without having a breakdown or harassing anyone. Keep things civil.

[diamaris-blog]

The Percy Jackson Trio Casting: An Essay to the Haters

Oh boy, time to barf my thoughts onto tumblr again. Can’t wait for my messages to get flooded with hate :)

I have seen a lot of fucked up comments going on about the trio casting announcement, and I’m gonna throw two cents into the chaos. If you’re about to fight me on this, YOU ARE THE ONES THAT NEED TO SWALLOW THIS PILL.

Most of the “concern” I have seen is about Annabeth’s race/appearance, and Percy’s hair/eye color. Listen very carefully: it doesn’t matter.

When I first saw Annabeth’s casting, I wasn’t too surprised. Reading Rick’s blog post on his website beforehand, it sounded like he was going towards casting more poc. I have been a long-time fan of the PJO books, too. I get it’s a change we weren’t expecting, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing.

Some people are bitching like, “Why is she black now?” Or the more common one I’m seeing is: “she needs blonde hair and gray eyes.”

I’m disappointed to see this racist chunk of the fandom. Yes, you’re acting racist. There’s no excuse. “Well, what if Percy was black? Would you be fine with that? This doesn’t stick to the book canon!”

If Percy were casted as black … I WOULD NOT CARE. If he were Latino, Asian, Native.. don’t care what the race is. Rick said it himself— it’s all about character and finding the right actors. Is Annabeth being white really such a big part of her character? I know Athena’s kids are described as being blond and having gray eyes—really, does that matter so much? Same goes for Grover’s casting— he’s white in the books, too. Is it such a big fucking deal?

And yes, there is a double standard for this. Like, what if there was a HoO series too, and Piper was cast as white instead of Native American? That, I would have a problem with. Why? Because Piper’s ethnicity plays a BIG part of her character, not just her appearance. If you read the Lost Hero, you know what I mean— Rick gets into it.

On top of that, are you really saying you need the kids to be white that bad? You need them to have white features? Really? I don’t know if you know this, but the reason some of us celebrate movies like Crazy Rich Asians and Black Panther is becauSE WHITE PEOPLE TAKE OVER EVERYTHING. THEY’RE FUCKING EVERYWHERE. The whole reason we love having diversity is because POC don’t always get the amount of rep they deserve. And now we’re getting better at it. This is a chance for us to get more diverse representation in entertainment media— to keep going forward. Are you fucking serious?

THIS ISN’T EVEN YOUR BOOK, ITS RICK’S. He has more creative control over his own story, and he cast who he believes will play the part perfectly. Casting actors is a whole process, my guy. If you read his latest post on casting, you can already tell that these kids will do great— at least I can. I trust the author’s judgement. I’m really excited to see them bring this to life!

Now if you read up till now and you’re saying: “Oh, wow. I guess I’ve been a bit close-minded. I should think of this differently.” Thank you, appreciate you.

And if you’re still insisting, “No, this still isn’t right. This isn’t how I pictured it, xyzfu.” If you really can’t get it in your head that you’re berating teenagers for their appearance, I am so sorry. You’re not a fan, you’re an obsessed hater. You just are. How can you not support the author of the series you claim to love so much? He literally wrote it, and he’s the one bringing it to our screens. These kids are probably super stoked about such a cool gig, too, like come onnnnn.

[gunchucks-wukong-archive]

No like i've been having intense Ilia Amitola thoughts and i just- we as a community truly give her for granted. She's a brown, native-american canonically lesbian character with a superb plot and non-stereotyped personality/looks. Do people even realize how lucky we are to have her? How much other fandoms wish they had similar rep? I know she's only been prominent for a couple of seasons, but she's been the highlight of those! She's had a juicy enemies to lovers friends plot with her former canonical crush who also happens to be bisexual and poc-coded. We've had this, and we barely act like we remember it! I know that a lot of the Ilia hype was naturally drawned by other lgbt+ highlights in the show (mostly due to bees taking the spotlight, being main lgbt+ characters in a relationship) but like! Ilia was our first RWBY rep and a super juicy one at that. She and catmeleon deserve so much more recognition within the fandom! I think all aspects of Blake's love life play (directly or undirectly) a very important role in RWBY's main lgbt+ rep. Bees are our beloved main w/w couple, Eclipse helped defining Blake's bisexuality, and Ilia Amitola was a wonderful coloring to it other than being amazing rep on her own. For this pride I want RWBY fandom to recognize that lgbt+ rep is so much more than just ships! Every character, every coloring, every inside joke and reference and every background appearence. We need to cherish all of it because it's rare for a show to provide so much content and it's limitative to restrict "rep" to just canonical ships (as lovely as they are). That's not to say we have to kiss RT's ass, but we need to encourage more positive rep is all it's shades, and make it so more shows are willing to give us this kind of representation. In other words, Ilia Amitola, May Marigold and all the other lgbt+ characters deserve your attention. 💖

Thank you for coming to my TED talk!

[willowlark369]

Let’s Do MATH

This is actually about writing. It is specifically about writing diversed characters and even more narrowly, by creating it by changing a canon character to have whatever trait.

The majority of canon is an unfortunate ensemble of neurotypical, straight, cis, white Christian males. I probably messed up the adjective order there, but you get the point. Very bland Wonder Bread there.

Fanfiction has a tendency (and pretty much since its conception) to change aspects of canon for whatever reason suits the author’s fancy at that moment. Fic writers literally exist because they looked at canon and went “hm. I have a few notes.”

What if these same sex characters got together? What if X character was female? What if Y character actually dealt with their canon trauma/issue?

Like a cat stalking a mouse, fic writers have been edging towards adding towards adding more diversity to the diversity they add to these Wonder Bread fandoms.

What if X character isn’t gay but is bi/pan/ace? What if the character was only assigned male at birth? What if the character was assigned female and appears male in canon because they’re trans? What if they’re intersex?

What if the character deals with canon trauma/issue the same way that RL people with it would? They’re in therapy and may take meds.

What if X character was Jewish? Muslim? Pagan? Atheist?

What if X character was deaf/HoH or blind? What if they were mute or autistic? What if they had arthritis or needed a wheelchair?

None of these tweaks to canon are seen as inherently inferior, even if there are already a canon character who might have that particular diversity trait. Or at least I haven’t seen anyone complaining about fic writers doing so, unless the writer made something that is outright bad representation or a prejudiced trope. And then, they’re calling out the bad/harmful rep and not the change from canon.

It’s acknowledged that changing a character in such a way adds diversity.

You start with 10 WASP characters, take away 2, and add 2 diversed characters, you’re gonna be left with 8 WASPs and 2 diversed. If you were starting with 10 WASPs and 4 diversed, when you take away 2 WASPs and add that to the diversed group, you will get a higher number of diversed characters just the same as you would when starting with 0.

That’s how math works.

Clint Barton isn’t less deaf because Echo exists.

James Rhodes isn’t less Black because Sam Wilson is as well.

Ana Jarvis doesn’t spontaneously become fertile just because Natasha Romanoff isn’t.

Spock isn’t less Jewish if James Kirk is.

John Rainbird isn’t less Native if Charlie is, too.

And the Patil twins aren’t less Desi if Harry Potter is.

Neither is Dean Thomas and Angelina Johnson less Black if Hermione Granger is.

It is not taking away diversity to change a character’s traits like this. When an author adds diversity to the characters they want to write, they aren’t taking away anything from the characters they don’t but who has the diversity in canon. Those characters still exist, elsewhere in canon if not in a particular fic, and they aren’t less what they were just because they’re not in a particular fic.

That’s not how math works.

I know it’s a big joke that writers can’t do math, but it’s time to lay this argument to rest. It’s not a debatable point because there’s nothing to debate. There is nothing inherently wrong with racebending a character just like there hasn’t been anything inherently wrong with any other kind added diversity.

Adding diversity will always add to number of diversed characters.

After all, that is how math works.

[vampish-glamour]

I don't get why the "they're sexless so that means they're nonbinary and use they/them pronouns" crowd is... like that.

Like, if a being that is truly sexless but can assume the physical appearance of either a man or a woman and does probably just goes with the pronouns most commonly associated to that appearance for conveniences sake. If they wanted to be referred to by the other pronoun they could just change their appearance.

I dunno, most beings that are sexless that I've come across are all angels or gods or higher supernatural entities and I've always felt like they just... wouldn't care either way tbh. I really can't image an all power sexless (and often time immaterial) being giving much of a shit about all this gender thing.

I think the reason they’re Like That is because they aren’t actually thinking about it through a fantasy or world building lens. They’re not thinking “hmm… how does this species differ from humans?”. They’re thinking “omg it’s just like me!!! Enby representation!!!!”.

They look at it from a completely human perspective… and often they don’t seem to actually care about logistics, just “omg just like me!!” And living out their superhuman superior genderless complex. (which I see a lot from enbies. There’s a common sentiment I see that usually boils down to “I’m superior because I have gotten past the lowly concept of gender”)

I’ll use good omens and it’s fandom as an example as I always do. Because first of all, it bothers me how the “they’re sexless therefore nonbinary and detached from humanity” crowd completely misses the main message of the story—which is that the angel and demon have “gone native”. Humanity is so dear to them and so infectious that they’ve become more close to humanity than to heaven/hell. And there’s little things they do like eating or sleeping that they don’t actually have to do, but they’ve picked it up from humans. (Funny detail from the book being the demon waking up from a near century long nap for a bathroom break because thats what humans do). So it really doesn’t seem that far fetched to me that these two in particular would settle into gender as well, and fully see themselves as guys. And I don’t know why the fandom can accept that they’ve integrated into humanity so much that they’ve picked up even the tiniest human behaviours (see the previously mentioned middle of the night bathroom break)… yet they’re still on some high horse about how gender is for the stupid lowly humans. (Oh god I really went into geek mode here… oops)

Sorry. That was a rant and idk where it came from but I’m not deleting it lol. It’s my blog and I’ll be a geek unprompted if I want to.

My point is that it really just seems like projection, especially in the case of GO (which is what I’m most familiar with as far as “they’re enbies” fandom types go), because in order to pull the “they’re genderless and magical and higher than humanity” you need to ignore the core message of the story 💀. But enbies want to boost their own egos, and see themselves as superior and magical and above all things human… so they zero in on “omg enbies!!” Instead of using it to create a good story.

In other stories though that don’t have that underlying message of humanity being a wonderful infectious thing and all that though, I agree that a supernatural being wouldn’t really care that much about gender and would probably just go with the flow. I really can’t imagine them having the attitude of “we’re so much better than humans” in any case though… because it would just be a regular biological thing for them? Fandom tends to treat it like a political statement IMO. When in reality I can’t imagine caring that much about something that’s just kinda there. Does that make sense?

Also it’s really weird to me that people will go on about how sex =\= gender… until there’s a sexless being. Sure, that sexless being may exclusively be a guy with he/him pronouns, or exclusively be a girl with she/her pronouns… but sex equals gender now guys, this character is sexless and therefore genderless… NONBINARY REP!!!

Anyways idk if I made any sense whatsoever. You made a good point and then I rambled 😂😅

[chasingshhadows]

No One has a Monopoly on Perspective

So I want to talk about something before I really start diving into season 2, because I think it will underline both the way that I approach meta and identity, but also make it clear that anything I may write about is my perspective and my perspective alone.

No one - no individual, specifically - has a monopoly on perspective.

I want to focus specifically on fandom and media, because that’s what I talk about, but I think a lot of this applies more broadly as well.

As a caveat, communities, especially target and minority communities, absolutely have a monopoly on the experiences of that community. As a whole, women have a monopoly on the women experience. Black folk have a monopoly on the Black experience and so on and so forth.

But within those communities, no individual has a monopoly on the _____ perspective. Identity communities are still diverse in experiences, beliefs, and perspectives - and that’s okay and normal and should be celebrated and respected. We cannot expect every bisexual to feel the same about bisexual representation. Same with Native people and Jewish people and disabled people and so on.

As an example, I know and follow multiple trans folks, particularly transmen, in fandom circles. And not a one feels the same about mpreg. Some are entirely ambivalent about it. Some find it refreshing and representative and joyous. And some find it horribly triggers their dysphoria.

The same diversity can be found within the Black community, the bisexual community, the polyam community, the disability community, the Native community, the aspec community - and all communities. Not every ____ character needs to be (or truly, can be) 100% relatable and identifiable to 100% of the _____ community because no community is homogenous; i.e not every Muslim person will relate to every Muslim character because not all Muslim people are the same.

The danger comes when the words of one individual are taken as the word of the whole community. It is just as dangerous for someone to say “this personally makes me uncomfortable as a ________ person, so it is anti-______” as it is for someone to say “my Black friend said it’s okay.” It is even more dangerous to say “I find this uncomfortable as a _______ person, so if you like it you’re a bad ______ OR you’re not really _______.”

I am a woman, and have disagreed with other women with different traumas than mine on how media portrays different women’s experiences. I am bisexual and have disagreed with other bisexuals on portrayals of bisexuals on television and whether it promotes a bad stereotype or is “inaccurate.” I am polyam and have disagreed with other polyam folks about situations of polyamory in media and whether it’s realistic or harmful to the characters portrayed. I’m atheist and poor and fat and have mental health disorders and I have disagreed with others in my community because my exact experiences have so entirely shaped my perspectives.

No one has a monopoly on perspective.

My perspective on those portrayals does not negate anyone else of the same identity. I can say “this didn’t feel like it represented me” while still leaving room for other folks to relate and identify with a character, scene, or relationship. I can say, “this conversation set off bad feelings or memories relating to how I’ve had to defend my identity” while recognizing that my kin may have just found it funny or harmless because while we may share an identity, we do not share a history. I can explain why a minority character is refreshing to see and find joy in seeing a piece of myself on screen, while allowing others to feel that the representation was lacking or imperfect.

We can all feel and experience these perspectives simultaneously. It is dangerous and counterproductive trying to decide which ‘take’ on a piece of rep is the “most correct”. You are not a bad bisexual if you enjoy seeing a bisexual character in an m/f relationship. Your Jewish identity can’t be taken away because your favorite character celebrated Christmas. You are not a bad Black person if you like Brooklyn 99. Your asexual identity is not negated if you enjoy smut. Your experiences and perspective are valid. What brings you joy and what causes you discomfort are valid.

But so are mine. So is theirs. So is his and hers and everyone’s.

So yes. Listen to the Black people in your life. Listen to the women. Listen to the trans people and disabled people. But remember that you are a person, too. You may be the asexual person in your life. You may be the Native person. And your voice in that community matters just as much as any other. And remember that the person posting a “take” on a scene you disagree with is a person. They could be the trans person in their life. And them getting something out of a piece of media that you didn’t - positive or negative - does not negate that validity (and vice versa).

Communities do not need to be homogenized or watered down to be valid and palatable to outsiders. They don’t need to agree on everything.

Many communities do have their “Golden Truths” about what is negative representation or what is -ist/-phobic, often based upon historic and generational microaggressions against the community as a whole. But whether or not a specific character, scene, conversation, relationship etc, is identifiable and representative of an experience within a community is entirely individual. And I think we’d all do well to remember that a bit more, especially as diversity in media has ballooned in recent years, and will likely only continue to do so (which I hope we can all agree can only be a good thing in the long run!).