Andy P.

This one hurt, her work had such a profound effect on my life, thoughts, and politics.

May her memory be a blessing

This sick bleach shirt I made. Something to showcase my undying love for prehistoric cave art.

Pea in year 201X Alt versions below! (Warning: a bit eye-searing)

Teen LGBT Squad

Another Hometar Runner fancomic for pride month, this time starring the Teen Girl Squad.

I feel sort of awkward asking this, but I'm just curious about if this ties into the flaws of the show you've pointed out.

I need you to know that you should not feel ashamed for asking this question because I'VE NOTICED THIS TOO and it has really bothered me! I've actually muted MAWS across social medias, but whenever something slips through, it has always been nsfw art of MAWS Lois.

Back when Cohost was still around, I peeped at the MAWS tag (to make sure I could talk shit about it haha) and it was ALL nsfw art of MAWS Lois. Just a few days ago on bluesky another nsfw MAWS Lois art popped up on my For You page! It's a thing! You're not weird for noticing this.

I do have a surprising amount to say about this. MAWS gets described as a "toddler show for adults" not just because the writing provides less intellectual nutrition than an episode of a quality kids' show like Gravity Falls, but because it fills that narratively shallow void with weirdly horny stuff. It's as if the show knows it can't keep your attention, so it gives the audience the lowest common denominator of attention by saying "look! Character hot! Character's shirt come off?? Whoaaa" and you know that's not for kids.

This deeply cringey Mary Sue article captures this vibe perfectly:

I love how this article displays a lack of understanding for why the series was moved to Adult Swim as a part of company merge shenanigans. They also basically blanket every show on HBO Max as being NSFW, like it's a sexual site? That's quality journalism right there /s.

some highlights:

Lois and Clark don't have a relationship on the show. They flirt and have doki doki moments with each other, and some of those moments have horny vibes. And to the allonormative audience, that's the greatest thing they've ever seen. Who needs the tensions and growth of a real relationship when you can just project your wildest fantasies onto these two? It's like the difference between the original Wuthering Heights book and the new Emerald Fennell directed Wuthering Heights movie. It's about dumbing the audience down and rewarding them with a sexy treat.

But I want to bring this back to why MAWS Lois specifically garners this kind of attention, because this is kind of personal. The MAWS crew accidentally struck gold in the way they designed and characterized her. She's a basic anime girl, infantilized in design and personality. But she's also an Asian tomboy.

MAWS Lois is not a traditional take on Lois Lane; the jaded adult business woman who humbles Clark and owns her sexuality. In MAWS, Lois is cute. She's scared of sending Clark a text, she acts like a child. It makes the audience want to protect and take care of her. To rescue her. MAWS Lois can be a little sassy sometimes and will save Superman by pressing a button, but she no longer humbles him in a way that feels emasculating. Oh and she's Asian too? That perfectly fits into all the ways East Asian women get fetishized and infantilized. Thank god she acts so childish right?

So now we're getting into the uncomfortable part of what makes this appealing for people.

Many fans describe MAWS Clark and Lois as having bisexual energy because MAWS Lois is a tomboy. But she's not masculine in the way butches/mascs/tomboys are in real life. Not to say that butches can't be soft, sweet and childish, but- the world is really cruel to them. Patriarchy demands that women fill the roles of traditional femininity, and once acting tomboy stops being cute as an adult, the world punishes them for it. And because of that, butches are jaded. They wear tough skin to get to where they are. The magical thing about the confidence of a butch is that it is deeply emasculating to men.

This gets weirder when men find themselves attracted to butches. They get really insecure about how gay it feels to be attracted to a woman who's confident in her masculinity. "Ugh, why does she have to be better at this masculinity thing because she had to earn her confidence through hardship while I had mine handed to me?" Man, if only there was a safe way to be attracted to such a taboo woman. If only she was cute, shy, dependent on a man and needed rescuing.

And that's where MAWS Lois comes in. She's a cute little petite Asian tomboy who acts like a child. When she feels insecure that other Loises in alternate universes achieved more than her as these radical employed feminist women, she takes pride in knowing that at least *she* has a boyfriend. When Clark is bribed by Ivo to hang out with traditionally feminine, super model women, he defends his tomboy crush. The male audience can feel good about liking the quirky adorkable tomboy who doesn't emasculate them. There's something bi about these two, but not in a way that'll challenge heteronormative roles.