BiHet Bitch

[knocks on open door frame, wraps cardigan around waist] hey supernatural fandom, sweetie, are you doing alright? i’m seeing a lot of 5k+ posts on my dash that i don’t understand again, can i get you anything?

Are ya winning, my wayward sons?

It’s wayward son now

That in no way clarifies things

The brothers got a divorce on Twitter

Yanno what, I’ll just wait for Sarah Z to make an explainer video

Let me preface this by saying that everyone, including me, should be taken as an unreliable source about the Supernatural fandom; and also that there is *so much* misinformation about Supernatural, its actors, and its creative team out there that is accepted as fact by one faction or the other that I think it is objectively impossible to arrive at one unified “truth of the matter”, but from my perspective, here’s what appears to have happened:

- Jensen Ackles, who plays/played Dean, and his wife Danneel, announced via Twitter that their production company was developing some kind of a prequel about Sam and Dean’s parents, which would take place in the 1970s.

- large swathes of the fandom were unimpressed.

- Jared Padalecki, who plays/played Sam, posted on Twitter that the previous Twitter announcement was the first he had heard of any such prequel being produced. One of his tweets, which he quickly deleted, was pretty strongly worded and indicated that he felt pretty betrayed about not having been told or approached prior to hearing about it on Twitter.

- large swathes of the fandom got even more upset. This included (a) people who despise Jared and everything he stands for for reasons I am not going to go into on this post and (b) people who are very heavily invested in whether or not Jared and Jensen are still good friends and interpreted all of this as a sign that their friendship was over.

- This morning, both Jared and Jensen tweeted that they spoke to each other and are still friends. Presumably, large swathes of the fandom are still upset about this, or possibly, different swathes of the fandom are upset than were upset before, for reasons including (a) the apology didn’t appear genuine and they wanted Jensen to grovel more (b) the apology didn’t appear genuine and they wanted Jared to grovel more, and © they think the entire kerfuffle stinks of a publicity stunt for a show that otherwise nobody was going to be talking about.

#i don’t think they’re winning (by @anhaga)

yeah sounds like it

reminder that terfs misusing a term doesnt mean they coined it or in any way own it.

when they are not identifying as it themselves, and are taking a label they hate to try to force onto other people they hate to invalidate them, that doesnt mean they own that term now.

stop letting them take things from your fellow queers and run them through the mud so theyll get what they want: people to stop using these labels.

bi lesbian was not coined by terfs and has never been their term. stop spreading misinformation and just actually look into the history of bi lesbianism for once please.

I am a simple woman. I see an evil fictional man who shows the slightest hint of being a decent person and I go wild

fictional man: *is evil and participates in evil activities*

Same man: *shows tenderness towards loved ones/draws the line at certain evil acts/ shows any kind of positive emotion*

Me:

DON’T CALL ME OUT LIKE THIS

there’s a large grey area between “this creator is a misogynist/homophobe/racist” and “this creator did not fully think through the implications of some of their writing choices” and it would be nice if people would stop to assess where in the scale between those two cases their criticism applies, instead of going for a hard zero on the first option all the time

i think anyone who says tht a bi man & a bi woman in a relationship r basically the same as a straight couple have never put any thought into how bisexuality challenges preconcieved dynamics and the gender roles usually assumed in m/f relationships.

I get so frustrated when I see all of these articles and pictures and videos about how the earth is “healing” because Americans are staying home being spread by people who say “see humans are the real virus” and just leave it at that.

You know what I see? I see proof that it is not too late to combat climate change. America stopped driving cars large scale for 2 months and the skies are clear, imagine what we could do if we switched to renewable energy this year? This decade? This crisis might not be fully reversible, but you can no longer say that it’s too late.

The people who share these articles and simply shrug and talk about how “humans are evil” are missing the point. Do not listen to their nihilism. We are not evil, we are not the real virus. Capitalism is the virus, corrupt government is the virus. And people like you and me? We are the solution.

Do not look at this as proof that humans are evil, look at this as proof that change is still possible. It’s time to fight, harder than ever. It is not too late.

Hot Take: A Bug’s Life is socialist/communist propaganda.

It features an oppressed class, the ants, who are kept in check by a ruling class, the grasshoppers, who take all of the profits, food, and leave barely enough for the ants to survive on. They keep this system in place by spreading propaganda that there are other, worse bugs who they are “protecting” the ants from but also make it clear that any ants who stand up to fight the system will be killed. All the while the grasshoppers do no actual work and instead laze about and indulge in the profits that they “earned” through exploitation. And also the grasshoppers know that their position is precariously balanced on the ants being too scared to stand up and fight against them, because they know the ants would win if they did.

And that’s what happens, the ants realize that while they are weak individually they are strong in numbers and that not only can they protect themselves from other bugs, they can fight back against the grasshoppers and make sure they never come back again, thus seizing the means of production AND the profits, and creating a utopia with no real ruling class outside of the queen, but in all fairness, she has no real special privileges that we see. She gets the same amount of food as everyone else and her job is shown to be difficult, plus the ants now know they have the power to remove her if need be.

It’s like literally an intro into Marxism. I mean what else is the line “ants shouldn’t fear grasshoppers, grasshoppers should fear ants” but a PG version of that line from V For Vendetta about governments fearing their people? It even shows that when industrialization is made by the people with making their jobs easier, not maximizing profits, in mind it can be a good thing. And yeah the movie probably doesn’t really qualify as propaganda since I doubt that’s what Pixar was trying to do but what else am I supposed to take away from this?? It’s a just one in a long line of kids movies that probably helped turn me and a lot of other people into a socialist, intended or not. 

Funny how everyone’s always willing to accommodate disabled people as long as they don’t actually have to do anything.

According to the counselor at my college, all the teachers go through training on accommodation. But whenever I need subtitles during videos in class I get told “I don’t know how to do that” and they’ll tell me to find the video online so I can watch it at home.

The school says they are very inclusive and accommodating until they actually are asked to be inclusive and accommodating

in my class a girl raised her hand as the professor was about to play a video and said she was hard of hearing and needed subtitles. the professor looked at her, looked at the video, and said “there aren’t any. but they don’t really say much important stuff, you can pick it up from context”

[ID: A comment by @scat-dad “Seizure warnings are also nonexistent. Had a friend who said a video should’ve had a seizure warning before it cos it could w d up killing someone with epilepsy that isn’t well managed. And our teacher just went ‘yeah that’s an idea’ and just moved on, brushing over his point.]

“they don’t really say much important stuff”

then what’s the point in showing the video at all???

Here’s where the rest of the class could have helped out. If a teacher says “oh you don’t need to hear what they’re saying, it’s not important,” the whole class should just get up and walk out.

What? Suddenly it is important? Than turn on the fucking subtitles. It’s not important? Then none of us need to hear it.

In colleges specifically, professors tend not to be actually trained on what they’re meant to accommodate, and the universities dont always require certain necessary accommodations either.

So the responsibility falls to the students to educate their professors on their needs and what they’re required to do, convince them to do it if they aren’t required or even if they are, reinforce consequences for professors who don’t accommodate the students properly (which can take forever and usually falls to under-funded or apathetic university disability services), and also gain access to accommodations and even diagnoses in the first place.

Which is, um, not a good system.

Y’all, my university REFUSES to do more than a certain percentage of updates/remodels to my building because if they do, they’re required by law to make it ADA compliant and if that isn’t just the most fucked up thing.

Part of my issue with my gender is that it often feels most like a set of personality traits, and not necessarily anything biological or neurological. I am what I am from my own decisions and traits and experience. I experience some forms of dysphoria, mainly social, sometimes physical; but I feel only nagging incongruence between the gender I feel and what I am expected to be. All of this ties back into being Queer. With my entire being and presence, I am what I am, and not what others make of me.

I think often that I cannot possibly be the only one who feels this growing disconnect. I think we need to sit down and really describe what it means to be a modern Queer and what gender even is. Considering gender as a set of personality traits within an individual, which in my opinion makes more sense than 'born that way' theories as it accounts for the ways people experience the same identity in their own ways, as well as how environments can impact the growth of the Self. If gender is completely unique to an individual, can there even be a concept of "same gender?" What if gender is SO uniquely individual, our standard labels become their own categories of gender? Feminine genders, masculine genders, androgynous genders, neutral genders, anything in between or outside of. This is already prevalent in nonbinary circles, but honestly why stop there?

There is no "one true way" to exist as any gender or person. We pretty widely accept that on here, if at face value mostly.

Perhaps then, we should consider the possibility of infinite genders. That there are many genders of woman, of men, of androgyny, of neutrality. The list goes on these are just my current examples.

(Note. Androgynous historically has been used as a description of "in between" male and female. To allow it its own meaning, I refer to neutral genders as those existing outside of the binary.)

I'd really like to discuss the broader implications of this type of gender reframing with other nonbinary and trans people especially.

Let people grow.

When I was younger I was very right-wing. I mean…very right-wing. I won’t go into detail, because I’m very deeply ashamed of it, but whatever you’re imagining, it’s probably at least that bad. I’ve taken out a lot of pain on others; I’ve acted in ignorance and waved hate like a flag; I’ve said and did things that hurt a lot of people.

There are artefacts of my past selves online – some of which I’ve locked down and keep around to remind me of my past sins, some of which I’ve scrubbed out, some of which are out of my grasp. If I were ever to become famous, people could find shit on me that would turn your stomach.

But that’s not me anymore. I’ve learned so much in the last ten years. I’ve become more open to seeing things through others’ eyes, and reforged my anger to turn on those who harm others rather than on those who simply want to exist. I’ve learned patience and compassion. I’ve learned how to recognise my privileges and listen to others’ perspectives. I’ve learned to stand up for others, how to hear, how to help, how to correct myself. And I learned some startling shit about myself along the way – with all due irony, some of the things I used to lash out at others for are intrinsic parts of myself.

You wouldn’t know what I am now from what I was then. You wouldn’t know what I was then from what I am now.

It distresses me deeply to think of someone dredging up my dark, awful past and treating me as though that furiously hateful person is still me. It distresses me to see others dredging up the past for anyone who has made efforts to become a better person, out of some sick obsession with proving they’re “problematic.”

Purity culture tells you that once someone says or does something, they can never go back on it. That’s a goddamn lie. While it’s true that some remain unrepentant and never change their ways and continue to harm others, it’s important to allow everyone the chance to learn from their mistakes. Saying something ignorant isn’t murder. Please stop treating it that way. Let people grow.

Still call it out and question it ….

Bruh. No. Listen. Call out what people do now, absolutely. If they haven’t changed, call them out on their record. This post is explicitly not about people who HAVEN’T changed. What this post IS saying is, if someone is making an effort to be a good person, don’t go digging around in their past for evidence that they were once for what they’re now against, or once against what they’re now for, as “proof” of what they “really think,” because people’s opinions and beliefs can change. 

The obsession with finding shit in someone’s past and then claiming that a questionable or even sordid past negates all possibility of a good present needs to become extinct. Gold-star activism and purity culture are bullshit and we need to collectively reject the fuck out of them.

If someone has changed for the better, don’t harass them about what they were like before they fuckin’ changed. That’s shitty and it needs to stop.

“If you ship this then block me”

I’m supposed to do your job too now? Be the change you want to see in this world, mate, start working for it

today I’ve been especially curious where the whole queer taboo came from and I’m trying to figure out when exactly it started being a thing.

According to this google trends, the phrase “is queer a slur”, there were no results until May 2013. Now, I’m not implying “queer” isn’t used as a slur or hadn’t been considered a slur until then, but SOMETHING happened in May 2013 that caused a bunch of people to search that.

Similarly, the oldest posts I’ve seen tagged on tumblr with the phrase “q slur” have been from 2013, and have so far not found any earlier posts with the tag. (and really I have no way of knowing if the tag was added at a later time) So far what I’ve found is the actual censoring/starring of queer and use of “q slur” has been predominately from 2016 onwards, and people that used the tag before then would frequently use it as a catch-all term or to refer to themself. It wasn’t until the past few years that those people started telling others not to use it to refer to other people.

I am just so, so fascinated as to what exactly happened that caused this shift and I can’t find it

….OH? 👀

If I may add onto this… 

And all three together

I joined tumblr in 2011 and this sounds pretty accurate and familiar. I was here a few years before the ‘queer is a slur’ crowd came out of seemingly nowhere (2016 sounds right). When I joined here everyone openly accepted asexuals as part of the LGBTQIA community.

It was before 2016 though that there started to be discourse about whether asexual experiences were enough like other LGBT+ experiences for them to be allowed to reclaim the word queer for themselves. I think that is when I first can remember people beginning to refer to it as a slur. (I feel like that is where the idea came from that the criteria for being a part of the LGBT+ community was oppression rather than sexual orientation.)

And then one day BAM suddenly not only could aces not use the word queer but they weren’t even a part of the community at all according to these people.

I never really heard “queer is a slur” until after the “Does the A stand for Ally or Ace” discourse. Then I started to hear “can aces use queer?” which seemed like a weird question, then it seemed like a flood of “queer is a slur”. Almost like people wanted to shut down the term entirely instead of having an open community.

Seconded. I’ve been on Tumblr around 7 years, and I never heard “queer is a slur” going around until ace discourse became a thing.

— Francesca Coppa, “Introduction to The Dwarf’s Tale,” The Fanfiction Reader

one of the dangers of using the strongest possible language all the time is that people get desensitised to that language. “frozen is racist” doesn’t change how people think about frozen, it changes how people think about racism. by this point, now that wokeism has gone so mainstream and people have heard so much about it, there are people thinking, “well, if that’s racist, i guess racism is not as bad as i thought. i guess it’s ok to be little a racist.” this isn’t to say that nothing should ever be talked about or called out. but i definitely am saying we need to watch out and be tactful in how we talk to people who don’t already agree with everything we say.

not to throw myself into discourse or anything but fandom went downhill the moment fans began holding up fandom content to mainstream content standards 

Elaborate pls.

Shipping is no longer about “hey I think these characters have an interesting dynamic and I want to explore what they would be like together”, it’s “but it needs to be canon, it needs to be healthy, it needs to be representation” 

Headcanons are no longer personal opinions but “you are wrong and always have been wrong”, “you are DIRECTLY going against canon with this and here’s a list of reasons why this is so!”

Do I even need to bring up the “fiction = reality” argument here that’s currently so prevalent in fandom circles that, sure, definitely has some truth in it when you’re considering a piece of mainstream media which is going to reach millions of people, but not so much when you’re applying it to a fanfiction with 100 views tops 

There are certain things fans want to see in their mainstream content, and that’s okay! I do that too! Diversity is a necessity in media and it’s wonderful that the mainstream media is finally taking steps to rectify that, no matter how small. Fans can now openly communicate with content creators on social media and get them to confirm all manner of headcanons, and that’s good too! 

Except some fans have run with this and started using it against fandom, and suddenly you’ve ended up with fans terrified to put forth their own content because it doesn’t fit into the requirements they’re requesting from the mainstream. 

One of the best examples to illustrate this recent shift that I can think of is (oh god here we go I’m not even in this fandom) Reylo. If it were to become canon in the films? Sure, feel free to criticise the creators behind the decision all you want! However, exploring the potential such a relationship could have in a fanfiction no-one’s going to read except other people interested in the same idea doesn’t open it up to this same criticism.

tl;dr: through wanting to transform the canon, fans are forgetting how to transform the canon for themselves into their own fanworks and this is leading to fans criticising each other on the same level with which they criticise mainstream media without considering the history & small nature of fandom and the intention of fans in their production of content 

I’m black and I absolutely loathe how so many in fandom have weaponized representation. Yeah, there’s bias surrounding why certain non-black characters become super popular, but it’s also for same reason that F/F ships have historically not taken off: the writing in the canon is not always there. That’s a problem that is manyfold, having to deal with cultural biases, focus groups looking at charts for profit and a culture that has built itself up on the backs of marginalized people. I dont even expect that to be fixed overnight by actual creators in Hollywood, so how the hell is that something for us to resolve?

Mind you, this is NOT saying that we can’t speak up about problematic things when we see them–cosplaying Hetalia is no excuse to make Nazi hang signals at fucking Auschwitz, and there are other descriptors for black and brown people other than food. But far more often than not, these attacks don’t land on the white cishet oppressors they think they will. Often, it’s on other minorities. I saw a black artist get accused of blackwashing Suri from Black Panther and I’ve seen the whitewashing Lance shit so often, my last phone autoprompted for Lance anytime I typed “whitewash.” And then there was the Steven Universe artist. I don’t even need to say the one.

I am glad for more fandom inclusion, but not at the cost of people’s well-being.