thinking about how frustrating it is that some people will weaponise every new piece of good queer rep against previous pieces of rep to paint them as not enough or no longer valuable instead of appreciating each positive piece of rep as a necessary stepping stone to the next
all the jokes about jonathan reacting to the mundane thing (he has no mirror now) as opposed to the insane thing (blood, no reflection, etc) are very funny and i’m enjoying them but also it’s such a human reaction. he can’t possibly freak out about this. he’s realised he’s trapped here. this is so beyond the realms of anything he’s experienced before. however, what he can DEFINITELY wrap his head around is the mild inconvenience of being unable to shave now
There’s something incredibly bittersweet about having had to discover being on the aroace spectrum through the years of discourse and now being the first person to let my questioning cousin know that asexuality is a thing.
Like I saw so many people being awful and degrading and utterly cruel about my sexuality. I’ve read stories about people who were resentful that they chose the label because they were convinced it wasn’t valid. I used to scan the discourse tag for people to block and read all those arguments wanting to erase or remove us from the community.
But learning about Asexuality all these years ago on this Hellsite helped me to become so much more comfortable with myself as a person. And all the sources I know about via the community and LGBTQIA+ websites gave me something to send to my cousin when she began to question, and I’m able to help her decipher her feelings and give her the comfort of knowing she’s not alone like I felt like I was when I was her age.
I just love that I’m able to give her that, it’s very healing to the person I was back then.
Cis people do know that they can change their names too right
Like from what I’ve seen it seems like they don’t know that.
My first college roommate’s name was Sarah but decided our freshman year that Sarah was too common of a name and decided that she was going to go by Phyllis instead. It’s not her middle name or anything, it’s just a name she liked the sound of. Our entire friend group called her that for years.
My uncle-in-law is called Keith and apparently a lot of his nieces and nephews didn’t find out until they were adults that his legal name is John. I knew one of the supervisors at work as Rose for so long I was shocked when I saw her legal name on a piece of paperwork. My cousin was named after my grandfather, but with a name so outdated that he’s gone by a different one since birth.
And you’ll find that nobody challenges them on this topic either :) nobody insists “you should go by your real name.” Interesting.
One of my local friends legally changed her name purely to represent her better. She’s cis.
I wish my aunt didn’t know this because she changed her name to Larceny. Like the crime.
Tell your aunt she has my full support. Would love to be her accomplice
setting up, advertising, or alluding to queer relationships in media with no intention of actually depicting that relationship in order to capitalize off of queer viewers without scaring away general audiences.
what queerbaiting is not:
popular fandom ships not becoming canon
ambiguous or unconventional queer stories
real people experimenting with their gender or sexuality
and anything else that doesn’t fit the definition above
“Frodo broke off a portion of a wafer and handed it to him on its leaf-wrapping. Gollum sniffed at the leaf and his face changed: a spasm of disgust came over it, and a hint of his old malice.” -The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers, ch 13
a mother is singing her baby a lullaby for the first time, a shelter cat is going home with an excited family, a kid is starting the first pages of what will be their favorite book series, a couple in a long engagement is finally having their wedding, a gardener is stepping outside to see their produce flourishing and almost ready to be picked, a father is becoming a grandfather eager to hold his new little love, a teenager is putting the keys into their first car, someone is moving on from a break up and walking past a place they used to go with their ex without feeling an ache, a patient is taking their first steps forward after a long surgery, a child is getting all giddy with anticipation for their birthday party
because life all around us is beautiful even though there is chaos and sorrow that can often overshadow it.
trans kids have to grow up fighting the whole damn world and establishment just to exist. and to come of age carrying that weight is something that requires more courage than should ever be asked of a child, a teenager, of anyone for that matter.
trans kids everywhere should know that no matter how hard the world tries to erase and bury you, that there are so many people behind you, fighting for you, and so many times ahead for you to experience yourself, experience joy and relief and love. that no matter how dark it feels, there is a future you looking back patiently and lovingly waiting for you.