whatever spills out of my head goes here

I keep up casually, but it’s mainly because since separating from the fandom due to military service and the down time afterward, I just don’t care to see Army complain about everything. It’s still fun to watch BTS, and I very much do, but Army gets on my last nerve. I honestly couldn’t be assed to go back to how heavily involved I used to be.

As for Jikook, similar sentiment. I truly don’t care how he’s handling the tattoo, because I don’t know anything about Winter. I have never seen her and JK interact either, no one has, so we don’t know what type of relationship they have, if one at all. My assumption is they probably are at the very least, friends, which accounts for the tattoo. Why they hide it? Idk. Was it a coincidence? Idk. Do they regret it? Idk. Did they get it as a couple piece then breakup? Idk, and I don’t care.

How Jimin and JK are is how they’ve been for years, and I don’t think platonic accurately covers it. What the finer details are? I no longer care.

Some fans really think the pinnacle of representation is gay men representation. It's truly beyond their imagination that a person of color would watch HR because of how big it was in pop culture, but came out of the show wanting to root for the non white actors and actresses. Yes aside from Shane and Yuna, the other roles are not that big (even if they are bigger than the source materials, like Svetlana's) but us people of color are used to that! We are used to everyone defaulting to liking the white main leads and only like the non white actors / actresses as long as they don't upset the status quo. We're used to quietly rooting for the non whites because we know the fandom only will do it for pity stanning and not actually rooting for them to be successful.

It’s honestly just plain old racism at work. I often follow non-white actors first from a cast or at least at the same time, if they have white co%stars that I also like. If someone's IG is boring TO ME, I don’t follow them no matter if they’re of color or white, lol. It’s genuinely not that big of a deal outside of specific context.

For example, when the show popped off and a bunch of white celebs followed Connor but not Hudson, even with queerbaiting rumors for both, it’s was likely because of the whole “Connor is a hot white guy” thing. Yes, his portrayal of Ilya was amazing, and yes, some probably found him to be the better actor, which is fine. But it can’t be said that white actors don’t get more love off jump from audiences.

The journalist following Hudson first isn’t an issue, and unless she’s shown prejudices against queer people before, C/F fans claiming she’s homophobic just because she doesn’t follow two queer men just means she’s not into their content or lack thereof, as she said. C/F fans just want people to homophobic, because constantly pushing that accusation means eventually getting a direct response to whether or not C/F are dating, and/or whether or not Hudson is queer too.

It’s why they’ve been pushing this accusation since the airport pics and F’s comment about shipping. They need homophobia to be the reason, because it’s all they’ve got going for them. C/F aren’t out because industry homophobia. C/F don’t interact because fandom homophobia. Hudson is popular because he is homophobic. Journalists praise Hudson because they refuse to acknowledge the supposed outpouring of homophobia from all areas.

Context is a must.

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OHHHHHHHHH, lmao! I wrote that post and it left my brain, my bad.

It was in reference to someone on Twitter claiming to have been an acquaintance to Hudson in high school, who said he was a decent guy and had no control over the swastika being drawn on him. The person he (at least I think it’s a guy) was arguing with said, “He’s not going to fuck you” to which the supposed acquaintance said, “Obviously, that ship sailed when he moved away.”

Remember how it was bullshit, because all people did was point out his biphobia by reminding him that Hudson dating a woman doesn’t mean anyone knows his sexuality, given he hadn’t stated it?

See how now, a Connor/Francois fan actually did verbally attack a Black woman journalist for writing about the unfair and unfounded harassment Hudson has been receiving since the show premiered, yet C/F fans aren’t taking her side. They’re instead taking the side of the man attacking her, claiming she’s only doing it because she’s up Hudson’s ass. Claiming she hates herself.

I’m gonna try and really think, because I feel like he’d have fun with quite a few, but the likelihood for some is zero, lol.

Off jump, I think a mid-budget boys trip movie with Caleb McLaughlin and Iñaki Godoy would be funny. A romantic drama between an older and younger man, opposite Keiynan Lonsdale. A childhood friends to lovers with age mate Maitreyi Ramakrishnan (I actually would give anything for this one). A sibling rivalry type holiday movie with Anna Cathcart as his sister. They could have the same white daddy but different moms to account for their ethnicities.

For some bigger names, I feel like he’d move heaven and earth to work with Mahershala Ali, and for that I could see a heist movie. He and Ayo Edebiri would kill in a comedy. One where they’re co-workers competing for a promotion, who get stranded somehow somewhere, and fight tons of hijinks to get back to their boss before shit truly hits the fan. Dev Patel. I don’t know in what, I but I feel like Dev’s directing and project selections align with Hudson’s taste. A drama starring Tracee Ellis Ross and Gemma Chan as wives who seduce younger man Hudson Willams, but both do it not realizing the other is too.

Obviously it's never just one thing. Race, nationality, how popular the role was, previous projects, marketing, all of it matters. But acting like perceived sexuality does nothing feels disingenuous. Kit Connor has a way bigger following than Joe Locke, and they're both white leads from the same show. Edvin Ryding has more than Omar Rudberg. Galitzine has more than Taylor Zakhar Perez. It's not universal but it shows up often enough that brushing it off is strange.

And yeah, before anyone says it, Connor obviously has privileges Hudson doesn't. Both things are true at once. That's kind of the whole point. But pretending the public reads their sexualities the same way when Hudson's been photographed with his girlfriend at some of the biggest moments of his career like the Oscars and CSAs just isn't realistic. Fair or not, audiences factor that in, and it shapes how they attach to him.

These fandoms are mostly driven by women, and statistically the biggest share of that is straight women. Actors who read as straight, or straight-passing, or just romantically attainable tend to do better in those spaces because they fit more easily into the existing fantasy and parasocial dynamics. That's not a moral failing on anyone's part. It's just how these fandoms have worked for years. Acknowledging that doesn't take anything away from Hudson's success. If anything, refusing to acknowledge it makes the argument harder to take seriously, because it's one of the most consistently observable patterns in fandom culture.

This doesn’t work for Hudson, because his perceived straightness did not help him build his following. He was rumored to have a girlfriend from the start, and prior to anyone really knowing anything about them, when assumption was they were both queerbaiting due to Shane and Ilya not being stereotypically gay enough to be assumed queer actors in queer roles, Connor was assumed straight by the masses and media. Idk why y’all tend to forget this, but it did happen.

Jordan Firstman absolutely had people in his corner defending him against “fetishists” who didn’t care about queer actors. The biggest pivot in assumption of his sexuality came when he was outed and when he and Francois started showing up together, but even that didn’t affect his following.

To ignore that and try to retroactively attribute Hudson’s popularity to his girlfriend being seen with him months after he started gaining popularity, isn’t fair. Katelyn wasn’t “hard launched” until February, but his motion was already up. His Jimmy Fallon appearance followed by the golden globes, set him up well, which helped him land positively in the fashion world. He grabbed that focus and surprised people in a way Connor didn’t.

Add that to Connor having already wiped his social media presence… well. That’s the result of. Their perceived sexualities might matter now, because Connor more or less is out and Hudson is publicly dating a woman, but it won’t ever trump racial prejudice. Connor can always play straight, and if he so chooses, push an image that implies he doesn’t want to be viewed as queer in real life. Hudson can’t push an “I’m white” image even if he wanted to, because he’s already established as a half Korean man who loves being Asian.

then I’m struggling to understand what conclusion we’re supposed to draw here? you've spent several paragraphs acknowledging that we don’t know his views, don’t know his intentions, and don’t know what his team is doing, only to end up suggesting that maybe this is the audience he wants - that’s a very big leap from the evidence presented 💀

What’s extra crazy, is that I wasn’t even genuinely implying or assuming anything about him due to his “blank canvas” thing. I like Connor and don’t think he’s a bad guy at all, more so than he’s new to the industry and probably thinks being off grid makes him seem different from his age mates going up for the same roles. He has millions of followers, but he’s not known for being online and this will lack controversy for the most part. Which is fine, because it’s also probably just his personality. He’s not an online kind of guy, and was betrayed in a serious way so I understand.

I think it's great that they are not tolerating disrespect and harassment on their actors and the people in their lives. And that targeted harassment will get people blocked and/or removed from following their official accounts. Especially for a series that does humanize women's perspective, it looks right that they're not just protecting their cast but the women in their lives (especially Belmont's GF).

I do actually think most people know he has a girlfriend now, as you can’t really mention him and queerness online without a dedicated group of hating ass people racing to tell you, “He’s not really gay! He’s a queerbaiter!” However, he still plays gay. So he’s still bound to get assumed as gay irl by casual viewers.

That said, I think Hudson is often being berated for not being “queer enough” solely because he has a girlfriend. The biphobia in the HR fandom is absolutely insane, to the point where people have said they’re glad Jack Innanen didn’t get cast because he’s a queerbaiter too (he also has a girlfriend).

Unfortunately, and somewhat disgustingly, a portion of the queer audience this fandom has accumulated since its adaptation refuses to accept identities outside of gay or straight. And I highlight the queer audience specifically, because straight women, while often allies, aren’t not exactly known for not being biphobic. But there is also a decent portion of queer fans who get angry at the mention of Hudson being a queer man, simply because he’s dating a woman. They make no attempts to even consider him unlabeled and move on.

Hudson is also very much Asian, and doesn’t shy away from that even though he reasonably could. So despite the number of people claiming he’s “basically white”, Belmont actually being white and dating a woman, while playing a heterosexual character, in a show based around and marketed for its macho athlete and nerdy girl love story. He is exactly the type of actor romance audiences want. Plus, his character is an overall respectful guy toward women.

Anyone thinking Hudson was ever going to “outdo” that were lying. I do think Hudson remains more popular in the media, because he made one hell of a splash as a breakout star, but tbf, although Belmont is having a breakout moment, he has had other main roles from what I’ve seen about him. So he’s not going to have the same, “plucked from obscurity” rise to fame as Hudson anyway. He came in with at least a small following to begin with, then it was amplified because of the straight-white romance of it all.