Don't ship gay characters with girls.
I don't know who needs to hear this since most people know not to do this & are respectful about it especially on Tumblr but don't ship gay characters with girls. So you guys know how Richie from the Static Shock cartoon is meant to gay but is essentially censored right ? I occasionally still see people not knowing But it's pretty commonly know that Richie is gay.
Most people like & accept Richie being gay, in fact Static/Static Shock kinda has a big LGBT following. But there are still people who refuse him being gay & one of the place where you'll see this is in fanfics on Fanfiction.net.
There are alot of fanfics on Fanficton.net that ship Richie with girls despite him being gay. Most of them were written when it should've been commonly know he's gay. Shipping Richie with girls has died down in fics & in the fandom but there's still one person writing & shipping Richie with Nina.
& That's what prompted this rant. There are Very recent fics that Richie ship with a girl Nina Timezone. Nina has always been one of the girls shipped the most with Richie. While most people have moved on from shipping him with Nina & other girls just this one person is still doing it.
It's really frustrating cause everyone else has moved on from shipping Richie with Nina & other girls. It's just this one person on fanficton.net but it's still frustrating cause this is kinda the only person still writing Static Shock fanfics especially on fanfiction.net & in general.
I would say the Static Shock fandom is active just not as much as it use to be especially when it comes fanfics escpecially on fanfiction.net. Fanfics is one of the places where the fandom isn't active anymore. Most people post on AO3 now but the fandom also isn't that active there too.
But the fandom is still def more active on AO3 than fanfiction.net but there would be long periods of time without new fanfics on there same with fanfiction.net. So this person is pretty much the only one still writing Static Shock fanfics on fanfiction.net.
But the main reason why it's frustrating & annoying seeing Richie being shipping girls even in fanfics is that it erases his sexuality. Richie may not be openly gay in the show but it still erase him being gay. It's straight washing him. Shipping gay characters in straight ships is straight washing.
There's actually a review/comment saying this on the most recent fic that ships Richie with Nina. It's the Mother's Day one. This fic isn't tagged so you wouldn't know it has Richie X Nina in it.
So this isn't a "Don't like don't read" type situation so don't comment that. This is pointing out homophobia but any other time I would be right with you on the "Don't like don't read"
I never thought of using the term straight washing until I saw that comment only the term gay erasure. The comment also compared straight washing to white washing & I think that's a fair comparison.
Besides Richie being gay Richie X Nina isn't even a good ship. Nina is only in 1 episode & as much as I like Nina her character is kinda a plot device to get the guys to time traveling back in time. I like Nina but I almost wish the show didn't created her after seeing how people ship her with Richie.
& It's not that many people but it's still annoying as someone who likes both characters. I hate how the only Nina fan content is shipping her with Richie. But Richie is gay. Shipping him with girls even fanfics is erasing him being gay. It's homophobic to ship Richie with girls.
I've seen people say "it's just fanfics & fanart they're still gay in canon it's not erasing their sexuality it's not homophobic I'm not homophobic" to gay & lesbian characters being shipped with the opposite gender but it is being homophobic, you are being homophobic.
I've seen people say this about shipping Amity from The Owl House with Hunter. & Amity is even more openly gay then Richie. She is straight up a lesbian in the Owl House & is even in a canon same sex relationship with a girl. I've only seen this on DeviantArt but it was super annoying.
It is homophobic to ship canon gay & lesbian characters in straight ships. It doesn't matter if it's just fan content you're still straight washing them. It doesn't matter if they're still canonically gay you're still straight washing them.
Straight washing is homophobic. You wouldn't white wash a character of color in fan content would you ? Its the same thing. I actually have seen characters of color being white washed in fandom but Static Shock is a black lead cartoon with a mainly black fandom. You wouldn't want Static be whitewash into a white person ?
If you wouldn't like to see Static being white wash then you shouldn't be straight washing Richie. Straight washing is also taking away gay representation. Richie may not be openly gay but people still find representation in him. Static is important black representation.
Richie is also important gay representation. Representation is important. Another thing I hate about people shipping gay characters in straight ships is that it tells me you don't care about gay people. It tells me you're homophobic even if you say you aren't.
Static & Milestone Comics was always created to increase diversity & representation in superheroes so you are going against the message of Static & Milestone by straight washing Richie. There's even a whole story line in Static's comics about homophobia.
Richie is gay. He's creator Dwayne Mcduffie said he's gay. He's based off a gay character from the comics Rick Stone. Now that Richie has been brought into the comics he's gay there too. If you're still shipping him with girls like that one fanfic writer you're homophobic.
One thing I forget to mention is that people are still reading Static Shock fanfics they're just not making them as much as before. I use to write Static Shock fics myself & they would get always alot of views both on fanfiction.net & AO3.
Going back to that person still writing Richie X Nina fics I've actually told her that Richie is gay & her respond was "It's fanfic" so this person has been told twice that Richie is gay & still continues to ship him with Nina so yeah this person is homophobic.
I don't even use fanfiction.net that much anymore. I've pretty much moved on to AO3. I just came on to fanfiction.net to see if there was any new Static fanfics & seeing the first new ones shipping Richie with Nina when I've told this person Richie's gay was super annoying.
I don't normally make rant posts like this but as a queer person myself I really wanted to rant about this cause it brother me so much. The closest post I made like this is my fandom racism post which also included the Static Shock fandom. I've also ready made a rant post about people shipping Richie with girls before on DeviantArt. I wanted to rant about it but wasn't sure about posting on Tumblr but I feel okay sharing it now. The rant is actually from the first time I told this person about Richie being gay.
We need to start calling people out on straight washing in fandoms. Don't harass people just politely tell people not to straight wash gay & lesbian characters. Straight washing actually happens alot in fandoms. Just tell them "Hey could you please stop shipping this gay/lesbian character with a girl/man it's straightwashing"
This might just be me complaining & blowing things out of proportion since there isn't that many fics that ship with Richie with girls. Like there's alot but not alot, alot y'know & you have to really search & dig for it. & You can't completely rely on the filter on fanfiction.net to find some of them. You have to read summaries. But I still feel there's enough to be concerned especially when people are still writing them even if it's just one person. There's also still people making fanart of shipping Richie with girls mainly on DeviantArt.
TLDR. Richie is gay, stop shipping him with girls. shipping him with girls even in fanfics is homophobic & straight washing. Stop shipping gay characters with girls. Stop shipping lesbians with men.
