#with jay

Why: Given her very gendered uppringing, showcased in inoki where she is told to supress herself (less collorful outfits, more oderly and symetrical hair, and having traditionally feminine roles like tending to the house imposed on her) I feel like, on a subconsiousl level Joy would have certain things including methods of espression tied to gender whether she like sit or not She was taught certain things (most if not all) are gendered, and that she cannot do/ is prohibited from a lot of things because of this. she has kicked a lot of Letting People Impose Things On Her And Control Her Life, as seen in inoki. She doesnt do exactly what people say if it makes her miserable and sacrifices her true self. she is as true to herself as she can be, she tried her best to do so and to evoke other to do the same however, this doesnt mean she has shakes off the deeper embedded roots of her upbringing. WHich is normal, shes 15 and that is a very very difficult and often life-long journey.

Anyway, her childhood is full of trying to supress her very bright personality and imposing "traditionally feminine roles "servitude" onto her (just like golden, but with a diffferent set of boxes, but at the root of them both they are both meant to be at their familys service above all.) I feel like she would have more trouble trying to shake thtan being of service to others. especially when the ties she has gets closer to what her family instilled in her. You help your family, you help your loed ones you help yuur firneds. no matter what you are there for your loved ones. THis idea is furthered by her ficha saying her personality is "sweet and good friend" and the fact that she is always supporting her firneds in show. does this mean that i think that her sweet, kind , and caring p personality is in any way fake or in need of fixing? NO. I just see a way in which it can be pushed to cause her some issues. Im just taking canon, pushing it, and seeing what problems i can make for cheracters who dont get explored much... joy kind abeing one of em. we see her being friendly and supportive of her friends, and dint reeeeeally see them do the same for her, we are told they would and do do the the same for her, but its never shown to the same extenet. correct me if im wrong but i dont recall any Big Joy Moments where we see her have problems that are adressed and explored or even come close to that. Yes in inoki she has that monocrome sequence and before that we see her sad and meg hands her a sandwitch but we dont know why she was sad that day, or much more of how her fanily trater her in speciic like we do with golden. we dont see what her issues are outside of the ones she seemingly already conqueres (sandwitch scene with meg and innoki personality supression via family) idk why i feel the need to justify myself whos even gonna sread all this AND have an issue with ti lol Anyway, servitude, being a good friend, certain expressions are gendered. What does this have to do with Shoy/Jay? From what we see in canon Jay is a lot more blunt and rude than joy. Joy give people chances, benifit of the doubt, shes incredibly caring and even selfless. The first person Joy and Jay interact with is fred. Joy has Fred fall into the room shes practicing in and interrupting her, Jay Fred bump into him and fall over immediately. And their responses are night abd day, Joys first response is to ask of theyre ok. Despite Fred being the one who intruded on her and is making a while display writhing on the ground (lol) the first thing she does is ask if theyre ok. Jay, on the orher hand, has fred bump into him and fall over, and his first response is to put Fred down and tells them to watch where theyre going. One is focused on the wellbeing of a stranger depite bothering her, the other focused on how much they bothered her Since shadows are meant to reflect something about their counterpart, i feel like it makes sense to make Jay represent a lot of what Joy hides away, filters, and generaly avoids aknoladging or expressing. she keeps a lot of her negative thoughts to herself, why dos she do that? she was taught to be of service to her loved ones, and taken that into worse territy it can alsome notonly helping, but not burdooning them either. Not burdoning your loved ones, not even with your own issues. We see Joy is not used to being listened to by her family, so why should she really expect it from other people? of cpurse it happens , she cant fake happiness all the time, she will have sad days and her friends will be there to help her, she knows this, but if shes "just" having an off day, if shes "just" a little upset or stresssed, if shes "just" a bit bothered by something. THats nothing! thats no big deal ! that doesnt hav ot be shared, its small and will go away. Which adds up, and lends ittself it keeping bigger and bigger things from her friends, in favor of being The Reliable Friend for when they are having such bad times. Cause her Meg and Bon and always so angry or stressed or sad or SOMETHING.

Meg and Bonlove her, but and theyd be there for her ina heartbeat if she opened up, but shes never really had anyone listen to her muchh, and has had these beleives instilled into her so she doesnt really know how to open up without feeling like a burdon. Plus, i feel like it makes ense, in a way. Thye are so wrapped up in their own stress about their persona issues, about them as a band, and koy is there to help them out, that they appreciate her for helping so much that they kinda forget to question whether shes doing ok sicne she presents as fine and if she does seem offf shes quick to beam at them and assure otherwise. anyways how the hell does all of that tie into Joys shadow being a guy? Well, like i said, ive made him reflect joys envies and unvoiced thoughts (botht things she belieeves and doesnt) which, like i said at he starts are things Joy, on a subconsiousl level, believes to be gendered. First of all, her envies are gendered and specifically tied to Golden, her first and once closest friend, who is living in the same situation has her but at a certain poiunt they couldnt help but be worlds apart due to the gendered expectations dividing them I think their envies are mutual, and that they re both quite blinded by the badness of their own situation that it only seems to highlight the good of the others, failing to aknowladge the complexity and downsides of the others situation. This is why Jays now has the switl under his eye flipped and a swirl on his neck, both in the exact same spots Golden has a beautymark and birthmark. His hair also mimicks goldens sideswept look.m alongside having his own unique touches, like having hair fully pushed out of his forhead, like originally, to represent how Jay doesnt “hid his intent behind anythinf” (kindness) like Joy tends to. he says what he thibks, directly.

Secondly , her unvoiced thoughtts, feelings, and stuff. yes she doesnt want to be a burdon, but, the way in which one expresses their feelings tends to be gendered asell. Womeen and girls are often told not to express things such as anger, anger is a harsh emotion. Their sadness must be delicate if not labled as histerical, they must be kind and put others before themsleves, meanwhile men and boys are allowed to voice their anger and frustrations. Women and girls are advices to not be so direct, to aproach topics with a gentleness, a sugarcoating, with empathy and understanding, thyey are urged to be ever so flexible (and honeslty errodeable) with their stances, where men and boys are allowed to be direct, stern, and firm in theirs. (btw this is very much a double edged sword. patriarcy effects men in ways too but thats jsut not what this post is abt. maybe one day i could get into that if i ever adress golden or some other characyer )

ANYWAY Jay expresses all those things. he is direct he is rude he has edges that Joy was taught to soften and supress. and being taigt=ht all these things is a direct result of joys gendered upbringing.

Also, I must add, that a lot of my current interpretatuin is thanks to, yes over analyzing, but also thanks to Chocottangs posts about Joy or including Joy (1) (2) alongside a couple conversations about Joys character aswell tysm bud :)

lol

If anyone read all this hello and thank you so much for putting up with my nonsense lol i hope ta liked it.

*youtuber voice* if you read this far and wnjoyed the post, hit that reblog buttong and put a 🌼 in your tags somewhere. /nsrs (but it would be funny) Daily doodle #95 (Tattling on myself: technecally not, i made this on the 24t and i didnt draw anything today or yedterday, but alas i wanted to share this andwa sOCCUIED. everuone forgives me bc i dropped golden bday art and deserve a little rest yes yes everyone agrees . lol yes look at me resing my hands soooo well after tying up thi monster of a texpost. lol) Streak lost due to: goldens bday and my hand hurting reallt bad streak was: 29