linka

having explained my reasoning, i still feel like a hypocrite. i have a lot of opinions about female characters and ships and the way they are so poorly treated, and i want better for female characters and female ships - but i rarely am the one to put my money where my mouth is and make stuff for them.

i don't know how to reconcile this. i'm sending this ask because i bet i'm not the only person struggling with this issue, and i wanted to support anyone else who feels the same way. loving female characters can be tough no matter how genuine.

look. no one is telling you not to write m/m fics if that's what you enjoy. this is fandom, it's for fun, and this blog is not about making people feel bad for things they like. with that said, i personally really don't agree with the argument that m/m is the only possible refuge from having to deal with misogyny.

writing about women doesn't have to be about misogyny if you don't want it to be. i mean you could make a similar argument that because m/m is about queer men, you necessarily have to deal with homophobia if you write yaoi. but a lot of people don't do that because it's fanfiction. you can write about whatever scenario you want and deal with whatever issues you're comfortable dealing with. you gave the pitt, as an example, right? write about mel and santos having crazy omegaverse sex after singing karaoke together; write an au where aliens exist and mohan and mckay go on a date in a spaceship (look we all have our crack ships, this one's mine, leave me be); write about dana missing collins so much that she moves to portland to be with her. get creative, go crazy. i just really dislike the idea that it's impossible to write women in a fun escapist way.

another issue i have with this idea is that often the male characters being shipped in popular m/m ships are themselves misogynistic. so, for example, the two most popular ships for the pitt, at least according to ao3 numbers, are robby/whitaker and robby/abbot. now robby is a character that i personally really like and enjoy, but i don't think there's any denying that he's sometimes casually misogynistic (and a little racist) in a condescending old liberal white guy way. so when you say writing m/m frees you from writing about misogyny, what do you do about robby or dean winchester or any other beloved male character who is pretty obviously misogynistic. do you only have to deal with misogyny if a character experiences it, but not if a character perpetuates it? i don't really get that logic.

also, i understand if you turn to fanfiction for escapism from real world issues, but speaking for myself, i sometimes like seeing characters deal with misogyny in fic. i think it can be pretty cathartic to see people actively confront the systemic ways they're mistreated. i totally understand that not everyone enjoys that sort of thing, but i must assume that at least some m/m shippers do actually enjoy it, because i know a lot of m/m fic does actually address how homophobia affects its characters. so if we can do that for homophobia, why can't we also do it for misogyny and racism and ableism and other kinds of bigotry?

tali’s mom:

Outlive Your Legend

Shadow Dragon Week - Maevaris

BUT it only gives me more Ash/Liara feelings at the beginning and that's what this post is about (and if anything between them happens with Kaidan as well, I'm in denial and that's all ◕‿◕✿)

Love the reunion where Ash says it was difficult to leave Earth and Liara replies "Ashley. I'm sorry." I especially like that she calls her Ashley immediately and that Liara was talking to Shepard initially, but it's Ash who answered.

"The lieutenant-commander has become very capable."

Always found this scene very strange regardless of who she's talking about here. But when it comes to Ash, I feel like it's more personal and less about Shepard's own feelings. Liara is noticing. Shipping goggles on? Yeah but it's okay haha

After James crashes into the Cerberus's shuttle, Liara's look is so striking as Ash is moving toward her.

And this sequence of events is interesting:

As soon as Ash hears the noise, she holds Liara by the waist even more firmly:

Truly blink and you'll miss it! But the second Ash realizes the danger, she takes her gun and pushes Liara away:

It's not a gentle push because Liara ends up far away on the ground as we can see here:

And Ash gets to face Eva Coré alone, which is the point. To protect Liara:

When Liara gets back up, it's after the fight:

Exactly what Ash wanted again!

And the fact that Ash is the one who ends up injured? Ah.