#((yknow.

i need to put such thorough emphasis on the sentiment that "this could be nothing" insomuch as that this is a very self-indulgent piece of 'meta' that is truly just Seeing Patterns that may not really exist. kinda like reading tea leaves. but the tea leaves i am reading rn are saying this it is interesting to me that the "doberman-ification" of yeosang often focuses-- either in image/clothing or in general attitudes/behaviours-- on a more "masculine" performance. oh look yeosang is so muscular and loves going to the gym. look at him in these very clearly masculine clothes. it's like the 'fierceness' is equated, somehow, with being more masculine which is in direct opposition, of course, to the maltese-ness. this discourse (maltese vs doberman) deeply bores me, but bear with me for the sake of argument-- all of the 'maltese' teases directed towards yeosang have been somewhat... girl coded. i remember in one of his lives (the gaming one) where the staff made his laptop background a picture of maltese puppies against a pink background. hetmongi and ddangyo are maybe some of the cutesiest characters in the aniteez/mighteez. so, right. you have this 'masculine' version that yeosang himself wants to present forward-- he insists on being a doberman-- and then this 'feminine' version that other people either reduce him to or tease him for. and you can read this two ways, right-- you can say oh, yeosang is specifically positioning himself as a doberman to refute and express disgust with being feminised, as much as we can assign 'feminisation' to this. emasculated, maybe, if that. and i get where that argument lies and it makes sense and if that's the conclusion that sits best with you, go forth but the way it reads to me is that yeosang must feel like he cannot be taken seriously when thought of as anything other than 'masculine', and therefore performs masculinity in order to gain respect, in not as many words. because look-- from what we know of yeosang, he is far from an Alpha Male and even actively encourages gender neutrality when it comes to himself. "i don't mind if you call me unnie". "hehetmon is a bellflower and does not have gender", "hetmongi is not a boy or a girl hetmongi is a warrior". he is very comfortable, it seems, in more femme presentations and stylings as well. but if he's being told that masculinity is fierceness and strength-- or, hell, if he's even just playing into that idea as someone who is trying to get the upper hand-- then it may very well be holding him back from a side of himself that i think we can see but haven't really named in the same way other members have about themselves. and i think that it's not like, the wildest thing i've ever said to say that i wonder who yeosang would show himself to be if he didn't feel the need to constantly prove himself