chicago manual of vile

Persuming that the demographic of the people who write Hansry mirrors the general demograpic of people who write romantic fanfic between two men, then the majority of this population are white women, who most likely haven't had any experience being in a queer relationship.

Additionally, multiple studies have shown that the majority of these women writing mlm romance fics mainly write, not because they are interested inactually writing about the experience of queer men, but because they actually want to write/read about a romantic relationship without sexism (plus the fetishization, but that is another story).

This means that, because the lack of understanding/experience of queer romance and the lack of interest/desire to investigate how sex & gender interact with romance, they don't actually write a gay romance. They write a straight romance, where both of the characters are of the same sex.

But in doing so, they inject a lot of heteronormative values and fantasies into these romantic dynamics. And these heteronormative ideas are, due to the intersectionality of bigotry, ripe with abelism, racism, orientalism, classism and, ironically, sexism.

And the bad part is, that most people don't seem to realise this. We think that when we write ideas based on our fantasies and desires (cause that is at the core of romance stories), that these are only our own. But we forget that those fantasies and desires are shaped by the society and systems we live in.

So maybe, when writing a romantic fic, examine your fantasies and choices you make. Where do they come from? Isn't it weird how you always make the blond chraracter submissive, even tho in canon they show they aren't? Why do you always make one person in the pairing more physically imposing than the other?

Not to preach to the choir, and I may be more of a hardliner when I propose: Since these heteronormative values are only normalized because they serve the power structures we live in, we are not writing a "straight romance" when we do this, but a noxious cookie-cutter formula of a patriarchal romance operating through the lens of a white master-class. The sexism, racism, essentialism are all still present and accounted for in the depiction of two men; it still relies on the belief that traits associated with women are inferior and passive and white femininity represents the epitome of romantic desirability. We don't actually escape reading/writing about sexism; the sexism is simply obfuscated by the male body so we can pretend we don't see it, even while we enact and continue to worship at its altar! But it's a poor smokescreen.

Some ceramic trinket dishes from last month!

These are slightly curved inwards to help contain items from teabags to jewellery. :)

House of Worth Gown

c. 1880

silk, metal, glass

Picnic in the Bluebells (xxix)

A fabulous blackened and gilt Gorget bearing the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece made for King Philip II of Spain, attributed to Kolman Helmschmid,

Weight: 2.9 lbs/1310 g