Since the “Don’t Say Gay” bill was passed today, I think it’s time for some Malicious Compliance. From what I might wrongfully understand, this bill is vague enough that heterosexual topics can be reported as well. If no one is punished for heterosexual talk, but are punished for talking about queer things, then that sets up a discrimination lawsuit.
If in five years tumblr decides that The Owl House was A Bad Show, Actually because of problems that were directly caused by a homophobic studio cutting them off at the knees, I’m going to scream.
Legend of Korra got attacked because Korra and Asami “only held hands in the last shot,” despite the uphill battle the writers waged against Nickelodeon to give us even that much.
Steven Universe’s final season gets remembered in the most bad-faith way possible because the crew risked everything to get the first-ever queer wedding in a kids’ show, and got penalized by the network because of it.
Adventure Time gets panned for “waiting until the very end” to make Bubblegum and Marceline canon, despite the fact that they couldn’tget the network to allow it until after the wedding in Steven Universe (hey! look at that! STEVEN UNIVERSE BEING IMPORTANT TO OTHER SAPPHIC SHIPS GOING CANON, fancy that!).
She-Ra gets accused constantly of being “toxic representation” despite the sheer number of queer people who fought tooth and fucking nail to get it to happen at all and put their entire soul into representing themselves honestly.
The Owl House crew has directly cited Steven Universe and She-Ra for paving the way. Lumity would have never fucking happened without the milestones made by others who came before.
I am beggingpeople to learn about the history of queer representation in television, and I am beggingpeople to stop holding queer media to infinitely higher standards than any other type of media.
Making fun of bi women married to men and het trans people makes you a loser btw and it’s not going to get you any pussy or clout, it just makes you look like an asshole. Pride month PSA
I didn’t want to make the message ace-specific because I wanted to make a point of how all of the above include aspec people, but I tried to use an ace colour palette for the background :) I also think the message applies especially (even if not exclusively) to the ace community!
Hope you like these
@rockmarina possibly “all labels were made up at one point, stop being an ass”?
I played around with the concept a bit, I hope you like it anyway!
I feel like this also needs to be said:
[ID:
Image 1: (in white text, on a background of rainbow watercolors) Gatekeeping hurts queer people who are questioning.
Image 2: (in white text, on a background of rainbow paint strokes) Gatekeeping hurts more queer people than it protects.
Image 3: (in white text, on a background of pastel watercolors) How about you let people question their gender and sexuality in peace.
Image 4: (in white text, on a photo of the rainbow pride flag flying in a blue sky) People don’t owe you a chronicle of their life experiences and feelings for you to decide whether they belong in their own community.
Image 5: (in white text, on a marbled pink background) I don’t know how to tell you this, but you are not the queer police.
Image 6: (in white text, on a background of multicolored textile) Stop siding with our oppressors.
Image 7: (in white text, on a photo of pieces of chalk arranged in a rainbow on asphalt) Not every queer person’s experiences need to be like yours.
Image 8: (in white text, on a background of shiny, rainbow chunks of metal (?)) Mind your own damn business.
Image 9: (in white text, on a mottled black & rainbow background) Let people change labels.
Image 10: (in white text, on a photo of a full moon in a dark sky) There’s no such thing as not being queer enough.
Image 11: (in white text, on a background of paint strokes in pink, white, magenta, purple and dark blue, the colors of the genderfluid pride flag) Vocabulary is designed to be constantly reinvented as human societies evolve, and labels aren’t the exception.
Image 12: (in white text, on a background of pink, purple, and turquoise) Gatekeeping is a product of privilege.
[Image description: (in white text, over a black background with trees decorated with multi-colored lights) Queer people don’t have to make themselves palatable to deserve respect. End ID]
[Image description: (in white text, over a wooden background with curved boards the colours of the rainbow) It’s okay to use a label even if it doesn’t fit perfectly. End ID]
…you know what, I think the message of this post really boils down to this:
[ID: (in white text, over a black background with striking rainbow lights) gatekeepers are nothing but bullies. End ID]
And I’m really glad this post has helped so many people feel a bit less alone in their struggles. Bullies have made a LOT of damage in this community—have made so many of us feel like impostors, like trenders, like maybe we were making up the things we were feeling—and it makes me so happy we’re all pushing back against their hateful, narrow-minded, queerphobic rhetoric.
Keep it up, everyone
Happy pride month to the post that marked the beginning of my journey to overcoming internalised queerphobia
