Insert something funny here

A lot of analyses propose that the overwhelming predominance of male/male ships over female/female and female/male ships in fandom reflects an unhealthy fetishisation of male homosexuality and a deep-seated self-hatred on the part of women in fandom. While it’s true that many fandoms certainly have issues gender-wise, that sort of analysis willfully overlooks a rather more obvious culprit.

Suppose, for the sake of argument, that we have a hypothetical media franchise with twelve recurring speaking roles, nine of which are male and three of which are female.

(Note that this is actually a bit better than average representaton-wise - female representation in popular media franchises is typicaly well below the 25% contemplated here.)

Assuming that any character can be shipped with any other without regard for age, gender, social position or prior relationship - and for simplicity excluding cloning, time travel and other “selfcest”-enabling scenarios - this yields the following (non-polyamorous) possibilities:

Possible F/F ships: 3 Possible F/M ships: 27 Possible M/M ships: 36

TOTAL POSSIBLE SHIPS: 66

Thus, assuming - again, for the sake of simplicity - that every possible ship is about equally likely to appeal to any given fan, we’d reasonably expect about (36/66) = 55% of all shipping-related media to feature M/M pairings. No particular prejudice in favour of male characters and/or against female characters is necessary for us to get there.

This is certainly one large factor in the amount of M/M slash out there, and the first reason that occurred to me when I first got into fandom (I don’t think it’s the sole reason, but I think it’s a bigger one than some people in the Why So Much Slash debate give our credit for). And nice point about adding female OCs.

When it’s a male-female buddy show, all of the failed relationships are usually, canonically, because the leads belong together. (Look at early Bones: she dates that guy who is his old friend and clearly a stand-in for him. They break up because *coughcoughhandwave*. That stuff happens constantly.) Male-male buddy shows write the central relationship the exact same way except that they expect us to read it as platonic.

Long before it becomes canon, the potential ship of Mulder/Scully or Booth/Bones or whatever lead male/female couple consumes the fandom. It’s not about the genders involved. Rizzoli/Isles was like this too.

If canon tells us that no other relationship has ever measured up to this one, why should we keep them apart? Don’t like slash of your shows, prissy writers? Then stop writing all of your leads locked in epic One True Love romance novel relationships with their same-sex coworkers. Give them warm, funny, interesting love interests, not cardboard cutouts…

As in, people gravitate to the characters given the most depth, complexity, and satisfying interactions for their shipping needs, because those characters are most human, and we want the realest characters to play with.

In a lot of media, the most depth gets handed to male characters.

And, oftentimes, even when the screentime and depth and interactions are granted equally well to female characters, there can be a level of, for lack of a better word, dis-authenticity to those female characters: they are pared down, washed out, or otherwise made slightly less themselves than they could be, in the interest of making them decorative, or likeable, or “good,” or keeping them from upstaging or emasculating their male companions, or just that the writer whose job it is to write them doesn’t know how to write women the way they write men.

And you get the characterization equivalent of that comparison chart where so many animated female characters have the same facial features because the animators and designers are so worried about not letting them be ugly.

When you have a group that’s allowed to be themselves, warts and all, and another group that has to be decorative at all costs, the impression given on some level is that the decorative quality is making up for a shortcoming. That they wouldn’t be enough in their own right.

And sometimes that cost is authenticity. The interesting, striking, awe-inspiring, bold and glorious unapologetic selfhood that draws the viewer most particularly to those characters who are unapologetic in their particular existence, standing clear of the generic and bland and unchallenging “safe” appearances.

It is authenticity, not beauty, which powers subjectification. The love for a character, not because they are perfect, but because they are them.

They can be pretty, sure. They can be sweet. But being pretty and sweet is not a replacement, and too many female characters have been written by writers who think it is, while the interest—in appearance, in personality, in interactions, in plot development—goes to the men.

You have to do so much of the work yourself, because the canon left them unfinished, with huge gaps or unexplored contradictions that you have to somehow resolve. Every female character you decide to integrate into your fanwork in some major role constitutes an undertaking in her own right as you patch together an understanding of her sufficient to model a consistent set of reactions and priorities &c.

The dudes just get handed to you. Even the ones whose canon is a mess have properly developed character cores.

But refusing to acknowledge that a lot of external norms are conspiring to make Engaging With Female Characters more work, in service of an insistence that any struggle people face with this is always out of a lack of moral purity or other personal flaw, is deeply counterproductive.

Increasing the amount of guilt and shame people experience when they try to center female cast is not gonna increase the rate at which these works are produced! Let alone how genuine and nuanced and interesting they are.

Living in Australia, I'm kinda always at the mercy of my posts lining up with crappy timezones, so when I came back to Tumblr and realised there was a fully in-built post scheduling system, I was very excited...only to happily realise that even with that in mind, Tumblr has a much more 'time-blind' and relaxing approach to posts. It lifts my spirits whenever I see that somebody's gone through my catalogue or liked a post that had been put out days or even weeks ago, and it appears that that's a far more prevalent phenomenon on this site compared to anywhere else. A guy could get used to this more easygoing posting experience, although of course that's all thanks to folks like you! Thank you all. BONUS:

Name: Little Beepo

Skill: Fucking Miserable

Unless the story is presented via actual narration, where the protagonist is directly presenting their version of events to an audience that they're aware of, theres no reason for the protagonist to lie in their own mind. Now, does that mean it's "true", what they're saying? That depends. They're only lying if what they're saying is not what they're thinking. But in a limited pov, you are reading exactly what they're thinking. At that point, does it matter if they're thinking the correct thing about what they're experiencing? Or is the truth, then, far less important than taking them at their word?

A critical reading would require you to infer what the other characters may actually be feeling and intending based on what you know of them and what they say and do, not what the protagonist tells you. That's more interesting! The character says "im only trying to help" and the protagonist thinks "what a condescending asshole". To the protagonist, that character is trying to get under their skin! That doesnt mean the character didnt really mean what they said.

The second search result had included the slur "ob*se" in the title of the article.

There are seriously people who tell me fat people aren't oppressed. Meanwhile, trying to find information about how to keep a fat person from drying in a car crash is met with links to products that make dirty money off of how society views my body.

Pelvic bones are strong and sturdy, and you're going to be MUCH less likely to injure internal organs and such when you suddenly slam into a nylon belt"

Text and photos by @thejacespace

Complications and smaller problems are a natural consequence of your characters being characters and not just plot-executing automatons. If your characters feel too married to the plot to have non-plot wants and needs, it might be worth going into your mind-palace and asking them a few questions:

What do you do when nothing needs doing? How do you relax? CAN you relax?

How do you handle peace? Do you enjoy it? Do you trust it? Do you look for distractions, or for threats?

What would you be doing if the plot wasn't in the way? Have you ever really thought about it?

Now that things have slowed down a little, how do you feel about the stuff that just happened? Do you need to talk about it?

I'm the writer, so I know what's coming next, but you don't. What uncertainties are currently preying on your mind? Do you want to do anything to resolve them? How do you handle it if you can't?

What goals do you personally have that aren't shared with the rest of your crew? Do you have an opportunity to pursue that right now? Do you think anyone else in the crew might want to help you with that?

The camera mostly focuses on the important plot beats, but what do you do when the camera's off? What's your morning routine? What do you do for dinner? What does a Normal Day look like when the plot's not intruding?

Anastasia Trusova — “Through The Walls”, 2020

Pathologic, For Those Who Will Never Play It (Haruspex's Route) premieres July 4th, 10AM PST.

I hope to see you there <33

Y'all if you've ever had any passing interest in Pathologic, I highly recommend watching this series. For the uninitiated: it's a half summary, half video essay, half theatrical performance of the famously painful Pathologic, made so you can experience the game in a safer way. It's not a FULL replacement for playing it, there's some context that I think is better communicated via playing it or watching a playthrough of it, but it is an excellent way to experience Pathologic without going through the torture labyrinth yourself.

I have played Pathologic 2, and I can say confidently that Ruby Seals's videos capture the experience of playing it so well. There were moments when I was playing it and I just felt moments from the video echo in my head. Rewatching it shortly after playing it, I felt it resonate with my fucking bones. I cannot stress enough how well it captures what it feels like to play Pathologic- you can get an explanation of the game mechanics and how it feels, but that does not completely capture the despair, depression, anger, grief, guilt, and pain I felt like these videos do.

They're excellently put together, excellently acted, well-edited, well-written, and just legit an incredible thing to watch, and if you have the time or the capacity, I strongly strongly strongly recommend watching them, they are some of my favorite videos on YouTube and I rewatch them at least once a year.

The first two videos cover the Bachelor route and are six and a half hours together, the next video covers The Marble Nest and is three hours, and THIS video coming out in two days covers the Haruspex route and is eight hours long. It's a time investment to be sure, but I promise you it's worth it. (And if it's any consolation, it's less of a time investment/agonizing torment nexus than playing the actual game.)

If you've ever wanted to know what Pathologic is like without actually putting your hand on the burning stove, this is how.