#gray talks

kidnaps dick’s son

My intention with this messy essay is not to attack everyone personally but rather to deconstruct the harmful line of thinking I have seen going around that blocks and invalidates valid criticism of marginalized groups and people who are discriminated against. Therefore, I will try to do so on the basis of facts and evidence that have been showing up all over the years in fandom spaces.

But before I get to deconstruct the common points being made, I want to make it clear that I believe, everyone should create what they want to create. However, I also think, people should be allowed to be upset or disappointed if they don't feel represented and the first line of action shouldn't be to attack the person but rather to hear them out and reflect one's own biases in calm.

If a Black person comes to a White person and tells them, they acted racist with evidence of doing so, their first line of action shouldn't be to get offended and to silence their voice immediately. The same applies to a bigger scale as well, if wheelchair users call out their government or society for being systematically ableist and not creating accommodations for them to be able to carry out their everday life, the first line of action shouldn't be to attack them but to hear them out. The same goes for internalized misogyny that a lot of persons have gone through with the "I am not like other girls" concept that had been very prevalent until people started to deconstruct the idea and rightfully calling it out problematic. The awareness of it being problematic has helped people to overcome their internalized misogyny - at least partially.

The same goes with people in the gaming industry pointing out that there are not enough female playable characters. Feeling upset by it and voicing their indignation was the first step to us nowadays having more video games featuring playable female characters. So fans pointing out that f/f ships and Black characters barely being represented and getting very unfair treatment shouldn't be taken as a personal attack but rather as the possibility to read and acknowledge it calmly, making oneself aware of the issue, reflect one's own behaviour and then decide for oneself how one conducts from then on.

(However, I also don't think that it is the correct way to rudely attack mlm shippers and enjoyers, but it also shouldn't be taken as an personal attack immediately by mlm shippers and enjoyers if someone is upset about the lack of wlw shipping engagement, points out the disparity and is yearning for more content.)

From this point on forward I will dismantle three main arguments being made around Arkco:

1. the age argument (misogyny) 2. Agott's gender not being relevant (heteronormativity), 3. nuance argument (deflection)

Arguments against the age argument:

The age argument is easily disproven if one looks into the early stages of the Naruto fandom when NaruSasu was the most popular ship even before Naruto Shippuuden was released. Also canon het pairings like NaruHIna, SasuSaku etc. were all between 12 years olds, that means, characters around Agott's and Coco's age but still have gained a lot of fanfictions/AMV/fan work back in the days and have flourished in popularity.

But also Killugon who are both 12 years olds and resemble Arkco in a way as it is a ship between the mc and their best friend are the most written ship in the hxh fandom. There are probably way more fandoms I am not aware of.

I think, the worst thing I have seen about this argument is however that some fans called it "gross" and "sexualizing" to write about 12 years old girls as if sapphic love is sexual in nature and can not be something that girls of that age experience in a not sexualised fashion. I have never seen this argument aka writing about a ship between 12 years olds being gross and sexualizing made before from so many fans like I have seen today about Arkco.

This argument that love between 12 years old girls has to be necessarily gross and disgusting is blantly homophobic and, moreover, lesbophobic and resembles alt right wing conservatives who are against LGBT+ representation in children cartoon and media because they argument and reason the same way: being LGBT+ (or in this case being sapphic specifically) is inherently perverted and sexual as do those commentators do by claiming that wishing for more Arkco content means wishing for sexual content between minors which is of course not the case. Since when is sapphic love between 12 years old being equaled with being sexual?

I have never seen that argument made about a het ship between a five year old and a six year old (Anya and Damian from Spy x Family), never once about Naruto characters be it mlm or het before Naruto Shippuuden came about and not even once in HxH. And those comments were made by commentators who had fujoshi in their bios (I am not saying that I believe every fujoshi believes in this, I rather believe that the majority doesn't but it was still a very sad experience).

If Agott were a boy, it wouldn't be different:

Killugon and DamiAnya also prove that this ship indeed would be more popular if Agott were a boy. In anime trend polls, DamiAnya and Tarco were both accepted as options to vote for, meanwhile Arkco was not. Furthermore, I have seen some reaction videos and know a lot of anime-onlys who have jumped on the Tarco train after episode 10 was released but have not acknowledged the Arkco ship even after episode 13. I am sure if Tartah were a girl, people wouldn't have jumped on the Tarco train either.

There might be many other explainations to which why the disparity exists:

Of course, however evidence has proven that negligence of wlw ships and racism are systematic and are prevalent in a lot of fandoms with equally aged characters, with White and Black characters that have the same amount of screen time but people still favoring the White characters, etc. And as long as lesbophobia, misogyny, racism, ableism, etc. is indeed a factor that influences the disparity that fact alone should be sufficient to want and try to detangle and change it despite other factors influencing it, not vice versa.

I know, we have a long way to go and the disparity might still exist even if we successfully fight off the misogyny and lesbo/sapphicphobia within fandoms spaces but what counts more is that we should make sure that misogyny and racism are never the reason why. It should never be a factor, not even be one of many. And as it stands today, we know that it is indeed one of the factors contributing to the disparity.

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At the end of the day, we are all flawed human beings embedded in a patriarchal, racist, ableist, homophobic and transphobic society which also of course affects fandom spaces, I do believe it is a valid goal and wish to create awareness of unreflected biases and to encourage fans if they want to to engage with media about people who are usually not seen and not talked about in fandom spaces. And I feel like with that awareness it has become slightly better over the years and there is always hope and opportunity to create a space within a fandom which welcomes everyone.

It's not about policing anyone and their preferences (keep fujoshing/fujining out <3), it is about uplifting marginalized voices that are often ignored by society and encouraging fanwork about POC characters and/or f/f relationship, to use our combined strength and effort to make everyone feel seen and welcome - even if the society fails them and shuts them down, we have the power to care - especially nowadays more than ever.

just wanted to say I love the artwork and wanted to ask if you had any headcanons/lore for your character? I don't know if I do for mine, but I love peoples creativity and when they can give a story to their oc's/game characters ^-^

omg, thank you so much!! It's made me so happy how positively people have reacted to my attempt at the palia artstyle, this community has been so welcoming and supportive of the art I've made and i genuinely love it so much. I actually made a commission sheet for palia style pieces a while back, so I may post it here on tumblr some time soon! I've actually recently updated that art, since it was the first art I ever drew of them before having a concrete design idea for them:

As for the second part, I've actually put quite a lot of thought into their character, so heres some info about them under a read more :D (also for anyone interested in character plots, the plot I have uploaded to the tour board as Sol Reagem is my original plot, but it also doubles as what Sol's actual home looks like!)