on a textual level, a female character can dress however she wants and shouldn’t be slut-shamed and hated for what she prefers to wear.
on a metatextual level, she might still have been designed with an intention to provide fanservice.
this means that criticising a design, as opposed to a character, is neither misogyny nor slut-shaming. being displeased about the way a character has been designed is not synonymous with hating her.
have i made myself clear?
I don’t ship them.
“THESE TWO ARE CANON SHIP IT YOU HOMOPHOBE”
Thank you!
I am a gay male. Likely I’m one of the oldest users on tumblr. I’m 74. Yes, young readers seventy four. I have been with my partner Carl for 47 years now.
Please know that while we both know technology very well, we are also trying very hard to remember, and use correctly, the new dialogue that has grown. So, if any words appear here that are not considered correct…it is not because I refuse to use them. It’s because I haven’t heard them. Or seen them. Or am emotional enough while writing this that I simply use “old fart” words.
We have both been through it all. The hiding because it was illegal, the fear and pain of the loss of fifteen different friends and acquaintances from A.I.D.S. The times when you literally (not virtually) could not walk the streets without meeting someone that had a sign, or a pamphlet that declared A.I.D.S was God’s way of “ridding the earth” of homosexuality. We lived through the burning of homes, and clubs, and bars. We lived through the beating deaths. I lived through a beating that nearly lost me my right eye and left me completely deaf in the right ear. Carl lost several jobs because “he must be…” or “we know.” We lived through hatred that was terrifying and sickening and unimaginable to some today.
The hatred is still there. The overt and the subtle. Things are, however better (it’s a terrible word, I know). Carl and I married. We debated making it very public, but decided on a personal ceremony. The photos are filled with our friends who are 90 and…well…have a few pages stuck together, to new friends who are young enough to be our grandchildren.
Carl and I are in a variety of fandoms. Yes, we are trekkies-we bought our first color television just for Star Trek. Now Carl loves Supernatural (and thinks it’s gone so far down the crapper that they’ve actually made Naomi an Alien). I like Teen Wolf and we both watch Sherlock.
The opening statement made by the anon is so, so true. And to us, it is a new form of hatred. I read fanfic and write it. Carl and I both enjoy all forms of fanworks.
Here’s the kicker… Neither of us is a Sherlock/John shipper. We both see Sherlock and John as two men who have a very unique and incredibly strong friendship. Here’s the irony: I have been called a homophobe for not shipping Sherlock and John. I received hate messages in my (now deleted) Sherlock blog when I answered ‘do you ship Johnlock?’ with the single word ‘no’. It was oddly amusing: “Homophobe”, “die cis scum!”, “go kill yourself”, “you must be a lonely, fat, hag”.
When straight people go out of their way to “prove” that John and Sherlock (and other fandom characters) are gay, and do so with the cry of “if you don’t ship it, you hate gays!” It is an ironic form of hatred and, in a way, homophobia: These straight people are so determined to show that they aren’t homophobic, that they fail to see how damaging their fetishization and “look at how accepting I am!” is. That, queers can actually see a friendship between John and Sherlock (and any other fandom characters). That seeing a friendship, and not shipping John and Sherlock is simply that… Seeing a friendship.
When you demand, dear straight people, that others ship Johnlock, and demand that if you don’t “ship” you are homophobic… You are the one that is showing intolerance and hate: Your quest to prove that you’re on “our side” only proves your ignorance, your desperation to been seen as an ally, and the fact that you don’t actually see queer issues, or respect those that are queer.
You only want to see two guys have hot (or painfully bad, and painfu,l considering the how…painfully it is written the majority of the time) sex.
Submission
Read it; learn things.
Fake Geek Girls (x)
“So arrogant that Tony Stark himself would be embarrassed of you.”
(Source: bartonesque)
The ‘Fake Geek Girl’ has got to go
And by that I mean the whole stupid, foolhardy concept. I’ve said before that if you really believe there’s a horde of attractive women faking interest in nerdy things just to get your attention, you have a massive case of unwarranted self-importance, and I still believe that. I also believe you’re incredible insecure, and threatened by some ‘enemy’ who is no such thing.
The world of comic books, sci-fi, videogames, all these things, is no longer a boy’s club with a “NO GIRLS ALLOWED” banner hanging on the door, and it never should have been (indeed, I suspect it never really WAS but for this very idea - girls aren’t REAL nerds, especially attractive ones! And then the internet came up and holy shit look, women came out in droves to discuss their interest in these things, going back to the 1980s and earlier like the rest of us). If you insist somehow that it should be, that you should act as some kind of gatekeeper - he is a real nerd, she is not - then quite frankly you are just one of the saddest specimens we have to offer. Many of us grew up being picked on for having a non-mainstream interest, and now that this interest is spreading you attack and snarl and demean and exclude instead of actually being happy that you have new people to share these wonderful interests with.
You complain about games being rehashes, comic book reboots that are just retreads, but actively keep out the new blood and perspectives that could actually offer something you haven’t seen or considered before.
You demean women who cosplay as attention seekers in skimpy outfits, ignoring that they didn’t create those outfits, WE did.
Who cares if someone’s exposure and love for The Avengers came from the movie, and not the comics first?
Who cares if someone plays Angry Birds more than Dark Souls? What, you never fucking played Tetris? Don’t give me that non-game crap.
Oh no, she watches Thor because he’s tall blonde and built like a brick shithouse and isn’t afraid to comment that the guy’s a stud and so’s his brother? Yeah, because you read Tarot: Witch of the Rose for the riveting storytelling and characterization, right?
Oh no, someone’s writing fanfic about Tony Stark and Steve Rogers buttfucking! What a demeaning thing to do to the characters, you say as browsing the pictures I’ve been hired to draw of the women of X-Men having a lesbian orgy.
At the core of it all, for some insane reason, you are so threatened by the presence of women in your interests that you insult, you cajole, you harrass, and you embarrass the rest of us who are just happy to share. You slam women who are attractive and cosplay as NOT REAL NERDS, THEY’RE PREYING ON US POOR WIDDLE MENZ! And when they’re not as attractive as you’d like, you slam them for not meeting your standards. Or you slam them for daring not to give you the time of day when you grope and harass and hit on them. And if you look like me while doing it, that’s even more hilariously hypocritical and out of touch with reality. She’s not there for YOU, bro.
She’s not there for you.
She’s not there for you.
Let that sink in, guys.
She’s not there for you.
She’s not dressing up for you.
She’s not interested in comics for you.
She’s not playing games for you.
She’s. Not. There. For. You.
You are not the center of the universe, you never were and you never SHOULD be. It’s time to share your toys, guys. It’s time to be more mature. It’s time to drop the entitled attitude that insists our standards and our standards alone should be met. You do not hold the keys to the kingdom, for the kingdom has no lock.
My friend Kat - a geek with a cool job making awesome videogames like NFS The Run and mad cosplay skills - said something on Twitter earlier that summed the whole Fake Geek Girl BS up perfectly;
“That’s just it- “fake geek girls” DO NOT EXIST. There are only WOMEN WITH VARYING LEVELS OF INTEREST IN DIFFERENT HOBBIES.”
Many of the women cosplaying at these conventions probably know more about the current state of comics than I do, but I’ll never be asked to prove my nerd cred if I roll up in a Superman tee - and I haven’t bought an issue since the New 52 launched.
Fucking afford them the same courtesy. Don’t be a douchebag.
Whoever wrote this, I love you. I have been saying this forever.
listening to a song about a relationship and thinking I can’t relate to this at all
- Pamela: trust me, fans, everyone is happier if the celebrities do not know about fandom
- Pamela: think of it like fight club
the thought of becoming an adult one day is the scariest thing ever why cant i live the rest of my life blogging about fictional characters and laughing at stupid shit
I am going to let you in on the worst-kept secret in fandom: we’re actually mostly adults around here.
I am thirty-two years old. One of my oldest friends is pushing forty. His older sister is forty-six. We all blog about fictional characters and stupid shit. One of the first people who ever GMed a tabletop RPG for me still goes to cons. He’s at least fifty.
We are all, in theory, grown adults who are holding down jobs and have cars or rent or morgage payments or student loans and/or marriages and/or children. We vote and eat bran-tastic food for our hearts and buy sensible shoes.
Also, the first song I danced to at my first Homecoming dance was recently played on a local oldies station, dear god.
I mean, seriously. Grownups. We made it to the other side, fan-brains intact. So can you.
Becoming an adult is not scary. Becoming an adult is not about stopping with the tumbling and the cat videos. It’s just about doing that shit between work and errands instead of between school and chores. It’s about being able to do different kinds of epic shit — I may not be able to write another 50k fanfic, but I can decorate my entire kitchen in Captain America stuff and re-wire my rice cooker so the light looks like an arc reactor.
If you’re worried about no longer being fannish and not liking ridiculous silly shit (I assume ‘for no good reason’, aka ‘growing out of it’), you’re worried about becoming boring, not old.
So what if people call what we do childish? A: they’re wrong, there’s some serious grown-up badassery going ‘round in fandoms, and B: what’s wrong with being childish? Are children something we should avoid being like? Doesn’t everyone wish they could return to childhood?
We are living a friggin’ eternal youth on the internet. Anyone tells you ‘grownups don’t do this stuff’ is just jealous. Hmph.
Now get off my damn lawn, kid.
yes, this post? is the best
As another 32 year old, can I just say that this is the truest fucking post ever? I’ve been in online fandom since I was 16 years old. I turned into an adult sometime in the sixteen years since I discovered smutty X-Files fanfic on the internet, and I never thought, ‘Oops, I’m a grown-up now! Time to put away my trashy fanfic and start staring at the wall like grown-ups do.”
There’s no rule that you have to stop fangirling when you hit a certain age, and the idea that adults are all boring is just plain fucking stupid. Sure, there are boring adults, and there are also boring teenagers. Boring sucks. Adulthood doesn’t.
Hell, I’m going to be fangirling when I’m an old lady. So there.
(Source: axew)
when you think about it fanfiction is actually amazing
there are thousands of brilliantly written novel-length stories kids wrote from their own brains about characters and shows/books/movies they love all twined into the internet and other kids read these 50k+ stories in their own time and invest themselves in it
nobody’s being paid to write it and nobody’s being told to read it, people do it because they legitimately enjoy it
that is just kind of amazing
lmao at people who think they are so progressive and with it but say shit like CAN’T FORGIVe YOU FOR RUINING MY SLASH PAIRING FeMALe CHARACTeR
(Source: misandrwitch)
unpopular opinion!!!
am I the only one who doesn’t like [insert female character here]?
she does things! things the main/dude characters wouldn’t do (unless they were under some kind of duress not like THAT would ever happen)!!!
I’m just supposed to act like she’s a kickass character because she is one??? sorry but I don’t think I can do that.
#the character’s name #the name of the show #popular abbreviation of the show name #unpopular opinion
(Source: joanwatsonss)
people who hate girl characters because they get in the way of m/m ships
(Source: spacereporterulala)
EVERYTHING IS MAKING ME REALLY MAD RIGHT NOW AND FUCK YOU OP WHO THINKS THAT PEOPLE SHOULD JUST ‘LOOK FOR THE GAY IN EVERYTHING’ YOU ARE A VILE AND HURTFUL PIECE OF SHIT AND I DON’T LIKE YOU OR ANYTHING YOU STAND FOR.
GAY IS NOT A FETISH.
JUST. FUCKING. STOP.
IT IS ONE THING TO SHIP AND LET SHIP. THIS IS NOT MY COMPLAINT.
I SHIP A VARIETY OF QUEER PAIRINGS BUT I DON’T GO AROUND FORCING SEX/GENDER/SEXUALITY ROLES ONTO OTHERS AND THEIR HEADCANONS OR INTERPRETATIONS AND TELL THEM THEY HAVE TO THINK A CERTAIN WAY ‘OR THEY’RE WRONG’.YOU CAN SHIP ANYTHING. ANYONE.
BUT DO NOT FUCKING TELL OTHER PEOPLE THAT NOT SEEING ‘GAY UNDERTONES’ MAKES THEM A HOMOPHOBE. DO NOT TELL PEOPLE THAT ‘GAY PAIRINGS HAVE MORE SUBSTANCE’. DO NOT TELL PEOPLE THAT ‘IF YOU DON’T SHIP GAY YOU’RE SHIPPING WRONG’.
STOP ACTING AS IF GAY IS ‘IN’. IT’S NOT A FAD. OR A TREND.
IT’S NOT A GODDAMN FLASHY ACCESSORY.I’d like to also fucking how binarist as FUCK seeing everything as solely homosexual is.
but seriously, stop fetishisizing queer people or relationships (no, just gay, b/c there is nothing but heterosexual and heteroromantic and homosexual/homoromantic. There is nothing else. Sry2say y’all)
oh and of course everyONE IS FUCKING CIS too
exploding orgy of gender anarchy: On Shipping and Fanboys
This is my letter to angry fanboys.
First, let it be known that I love most fanboys. When I go to a con, most of the guys there are respectful. They share a passion with me, and that’s awesome. We’re all on a rock floating through space with little connection to most of the people who surround us, so anything that allows us to bond is fantastic.
What I don’t love are angry fanboys (I wish there were a different word for them). I don’t love being scoffed at when I jump excitedly at finding a comic. I don’t love being told that, if I didn’t like something, it’s because it wasn’t “meant for chicks.” I don’t love the notion that I’m not a real fan because I have two X chromosomes and like to look at the Avengers cast. And I sure as hell don’t love my online interests (particularly shipping) being looked down on by the people who do this:
(Comment on a negative Rotten Tomatoes review of The Avengers.)
(Message in my inbox. Way to be an anonymous coward.)
(Comment on the the SHH boards.)
That last one’s fairly tame. It followed a (now deleted) comment that went something to the effect of this: “Tumblr is sick. I can’t even browse the Avengers tag because of all the fangirls posting porn.”
Well, you know what? I’m not sorry.
I’m not sorry my enjoyment of fandom is different from yours.
Maybe my time would be better spent bitching at reviewers and complaining that Black Widow made it to film before Ant-Man. But that’s not what I choose to do. I choose to draw. I choose to write fanfic. I choose to share podcasts and make comic book recommendations. I choose to be positive (when I’m not pissed of at people like you anyway).
I’m not sorry you sometimes stumble upon sexualized male characters.
You know why? Because of this:
(Zatanna’s new “costume”)
And this:
(Starfire)
And this:
(Heroes for Hire #13)
And, finally, this:
(Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, Hawkeye, and TITS AND ASS!)
You get to ogle comic book characters constantly. You get to ogle movie characters constantly. And you know what? While I have a problem with the double standard in comics, that is your right. Women are sexy.
But if I want to put Iron Man and Captain America on the cover of The Notebook or pose them like Cyclops and Jean Grey, I’m going to do it. And I think I have the right to without being thought of as some sort of freak.
(Shameless self-promotion.)
How is the way I enjoy my hobby less healthy than the way you enjoy yours? How am I the one who’s inappropriate? I think it’s because I sexualize male characters instead of female ones.
I’m not sorry that makes you uncomfortable.
(“Leave the Avengers aloooonnneeeee!”)
(Wasp would never say this.)
I’m not sorry you’re a homophobe.
Actually, I kind of am. Exploring alternate sexual orientations isn’t “defamation of character.” It’s 2012, for crying out loud. I’m not a lesbian (or curious for that matter) but I can appreciate the Spider-Woman/Ms.Marvel pairing and the occasional Pepper/Natasha fic. The world of internet fandom has a lot to offer you if you let it.
I’m not sorry for shipping.
Shipping is glorious. I ship because it’s nice to think that these epic heroes have equally epic romances. Some of the fanfic out there is better written than a lot of comic books. Some of the fanart is better than real comic book art (looking at you, Rob Liefeld). Some of the things I ship are canon (Spider-Man/MJ). Others aren’t.
(Not canon.)
There’s a misconception that fangirls are only interested in male/male pairings. Some of them are, and who cares? That’s their right. But the assumption just isn’t true. There’s a reason Natasha/Clint is popular among movie fans. There’s a reason Tony/Pepper is popular. Those characters have boatloads of chemistry.
Then again, so do Loki/Thor, Tony/Bruce, and Tony/Steve. Don’t want ladies to overwhelmingly ship male characters together? Make a movie with more than one female lead. We can’t help it that The Avengers is a sausage party.
We are going to ship. We are going to ship loudly and proudly and there’s nothing you can do about it. I suggest you stop complaining and jump on the bandwagon. You might be surprised at how much you enjoy fangirls when you get to know us. We have a sense of humor. We have a sense of fun. We just happen to also have a strong sense of romance and a thing for attractive men.
So sue us.
*STANDING OVATION*
Bless this post
So much this
Oh, I’m sorry, are people sexualizing your gender and then putting it on the internet in a way that makes you uncomfortable? Welcome to every single day for women.
^^
i like it when the boys kiss
i’d also like to note that this is not just about fangirls, but for people who are queer and shipping is something that gives them the chance to see characters like them and fall in love the way they do.
cishet neckbeards are fuckin bullshit
Reblogging again for Autumn’s comment.
