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However, I want to acknowledge that Rule 63 clearly appeals to a lot of fans too, and I think they should be allowed to write/read it. So, let’s discuss the etiquette with writing this sensitive subject Item 1, tag it, so people who don’t like it can block it. Item 2, Rule 63 tends to come in one of two flavors: There’s “genderbend” or otherwise temporarily rendered “the opposite sex” and there’s “always a girl/boy.”

For “genderbend” or temporary changes… You’re changing your character’s genitals, but you’re not actually bending their ‘gender’… (Or maybe you are, but that’s a different matter entirely). For the majority of “genderbend” fic out there, the characters’ pronouns stay the same, only their genitals change, and the effect is reversed by the end of the fic, usually after a sex scene. If you’re writing one of these, you’re inherently playing with gender. And if you take that lightly, make sure you tag it that way because there’s a not insubstantial portion of the population for whom gender is a VERY personal and important part of their identity. There’s a BIG difference between “X wakes up ‘a girl,’ has a panic attack, calls the medical/magical fix-it character, and the whole fic is trying to manage their dysphoria and find a way to reverse it” and “X wakes up ‘a boy,’ decides having a dick is #cool and is gonna go sex-up her girlfriend.”  I can think of audiences for both of these fics – there may or may not be overlap between them – but if a reader goes in expecting one and gets the other…. Writers, be THOROUGH in your tagging. Please.

For “Always a girl/boy” I think we, as a fandom, have phrased this tag in this way solely to distinguish it from the previously mentioned, temporary status fics. This is about a character whose assigned gender is ‘opposite’ what their canon assigned gender is, and they identify that way. The fact that ‘opposite’ is already a misnomer, it’s pretty clear why people are upset by this phrasing. So… perhaps the simplest solution is to instead start tagging these “Afab and cis” or “Amab and cis.” And hey, it’s actually fewer letters!  Additionally, it is my understanding that the majority of these fics are “afab and cis” not amab. And that this is simply because there is a dearth of fleshed-out, female characters in fandom spaces. It’s not unreasonable to want to write about female characters without having to define your characters from whole-cloth based off of side-characters with 2 lines and 40 seconds of collective screen-time. 

If it is accepted and encouraged to recast white characters as black or brown – or to make canon straight characters bi/gay/ace because the representation doesn’t exist, then it should be reasonable to want to recast male characters as female. 

THAT SAID, do NOT expect or demand trans or nonbinary folks like those fics, or even read them at all.

'Trans men are men, so why do we need to make a space for you on hockey tumblr?' is a question I've gotten multiple times.

First things first, trans people's relationship with gender will ALWAYS be different than cis people, no matter our gender or what we're assigned at birth. That's just a fact. There's no disputing that and if you try, please get your terf rhetoric out of my face. Trans men don't have the same male privilege cis men do, and our experience with misogyny doesn't automatically go away when we come out.

It's not about 'not being invited to the party' or whatever. It's about the whole 'hockey fandom is for women' idea. It's about said women refusing to listen to me when I talk about why I hate mpreg, or why I hate 'always a girl' rule 63.

This isn't me wanting to be 'catered to', or whatever y'all are spewing now. It's about being able to talk about my experiences with transphobia and transphobic parts of the hockey fandom and not getting told to kill myself.

Show me the fucking manifesto stating that hockey tumblr is for women, yeah? Show me where in the fucking rulebook it says that.

Y'all claim that hockey tumblr is accepting? That it does what the cishet dudebros on twitter can't and won't by accepting everyone?

ok first of all i don’t think you know what you’re asking because this warrants a full on primer and i don’t have the time to do that right now so i’m just going to list some of my top points and bro, lausanne, i’m—

—i just !! he knows his team, his teammates so well and he steps up when he needs to step up, he recognises when he needs to step up, and here’s a few reasons why claude giroux is the best captain in the national hockey league:

first of all, claude giroux’s biggest critic is claude giroux: he keeps track of his stats, he’s talked about his stats in interviews and he wants to be a plus player always; it is so important to him to succeed, to be succeeding all the fucking time and he holds himself responsible for the team’s success too

hakstol, back when he was the head coach, said he never has to say much to claude because claude knows, he’s so on top of his game and where he can do better

ghost: ”he’s pretty hard on himself — just the way he takes a look at himself not only on the ice, but off the ice”

hakstol also once said that claude ”takes so much upon himself in terms of a leadership role and overall team success”

it’s been said that he likes to lead ”through positivity and friendly needling rather than a fire-and-brimstone approach” but that he himself is super competitive

once, when asked to describe himself by an interviewer, claude said ”i’m easygoing”, to which one wayne simmonds screeched from across the locker room ”WHAT?? YOU’RE NOT EASYGOING AT ALL!!!”

also simmer: ”he’s one of the most ferocious people i’ve met when it comes to competing” (there’s a good bowling story here when simmer’s fiance won g in bowling and g refused to leave until he’d won lmao)

what he really does is lead by example, many of his old teammates dating back to the Q have said that they’ve looked up to him and wanted to do what he does on ice, too, because he really does bring it all there, and i quote simmer here again: ”you see that and you want to follow that. if your captain is working that hard, why can't you work that hard?”

teeks: ”g is always going to be the guy that's working the hardest and setting the example for everybody. he's definitely vocal when he needs to be vocal but you look at what he does day in and day out, his consistency is the way a leader should play... [it] definitely has rubbed off on me. i’ve tried to be a sponge as much as i can and soak in everything he's teaching me”

let’s zoom back to 2011 when he first got his A: at the time, chris pronger got the C but he left the season early on in november for concussion reasons. the flyers didn’t name a replacement all season, and even though claude had just gotten the A and he was nowhere near a veteran in this group of players, he stepped the fuck up when no one else did

you have to understand that claude giroux, in the early years of his nhl career, was an outstanding young player — not that he isn’t outstanding anymore, but bro, claude back in the day was fucking feral, so fighty and willing to play his heart out every game!! many people considered him the unquestionable team leader even before he got the A, but in my personal opinion, that was mostly because mike richards was a piss poor captain and someone needed to step up, and g was definitely not ready to be a captain in 2013

there was a lot of talk during that 2011-2012 season though, about how claude may be the leader the flyers turn to on ice, he was far from being a captain off it. sure, he was young and in a way inexperienced, but one of the themes the media really liked was that claude had never experienced the rock bottom: he had been relatively healthy and had barely missed any games, he’d never finished a season averaging less than a point every other game, and his team had never missed the playoffs completely

but just wait

2012-2013 was a lockout szn baby and claude (and danny!!!) went to play in the DEL (never forget the pink) but claude didn’t even manage like ten games before he got a hit in the head and, though they said it was a very minor upper body injury (neck injury, it was speculated), it was serious enough that claude went home and didn’t return to play in the DEL — and please remember that both of his wrists were operated in the summer prior this season, too — but he was good to go when the nhl finally got its shit together and started the season

claude was given the C — it wasn’t a surprise, everyone had only good things to say about him: their gm described him as “the undisputed leader of this team” and one of the flyers chairman said “he is our leader and without a doubt our best player — i think this is only the beginning of a phenomenal, phenomenal career”

laviolette, the head coach at this time, said claude ”put himself in this position by demonstrating excellent leadership qualities both on and off the ice”

that 2012-2013 season start under claude’s leadership? the worst the flyers had ever had. they had never been that bad. and because that’s not enough, 2013 was also the first time in years the flyers didn’t make it to the playoffs

i would like to point out that claude giroux still averaged nearly a point per game in 2012-2013 season

the 2013-2014 season wasn’t exactly a hot start either, and people were ready to have claude’s head for it, like literally in november, there were articles suggesting he should step down because, u guessed it: the flyers were s-t-r-u-g-g-l-i-n-g again

people and media were tying the flyers being bad again directly to claude giroux being named the captain, like the most common storyline was literally “the flyers have struggled since giroux was named captain”

you have to remember that this was around the years the flyers were really rebuilding and reorganising the franchise, and claude was one of, if not The Face they were building the franchise around

now, imagine being 25 and the only continously really good skater (i’m serious, the only consistenly good one by a mile: in 2011-2012, claude led the team in points with 93 points, the second being scotty hartnell with 67 points; in 2012-2013 he led the points again with 48 points, much like in 2013-2014 with 86 points, second being jake with 62 points) and being the face of a franchise that’s rebuilding and being a captain of a team that’s never had a long-term leadership to lean on AND feral philly fans and media wanting your head

claude came back from that. claude fucking giroux grew into the huge shoes everyone was expecting him to will just like that: he matured, he grew up, he took the heavy responsibility and he’s fucking delivered ever since

because claude giroux is the flyers, claude giroux is the embodiment of what it means to be fucking a flyer, and claude giroux has carried this team on his shoulders ever since he played his first full season and never once complained about it

his career has always been a constant battle to prove people he is capable and he’s done nothing but proven that he’s one of the top players in the league throughout his career time after time! he has literally stated that going undrafted twice in the ohl has been a huge motivation so we know this bitch works best out of SPITE

even when he went to try out for the olympiques, their head coach had seen claude skate just months before and didn’t think he was anything special, just a small kid who was an average skater at best. he was sure claude would come for the tryouts and claude would go back home, but guess what? claude giroux said fuck that and impressed them and guess what he did next? he put up 103 points in 69 games and was the rookie of the year

we all know bobby fucking clarke forgot claude’s name in the 2006 nhl draft and that they sent him back to gatineau to grow up a little more, and guess what claude did then? he continued to be fucking awesome and in 2008 Q playoffs, claude giroux put up 51 points in 19 games

i’m sorry, i’m just going to repeat that for you: fifty-one points. in nineteen games.

and in philly, he’s delivered through shitty lines, shitty teammates, shitty coaching, shitty systems, shitty everything and he’s always delivered to his best ability—fuck, he even delivered under hakstol’s dumbfuckery!—but much like edmonton oilers, the flyers are the living, breathing proof that one star player can’t do shit without a good team around him so claude giroux needs. to. keep. proving. himself. because nothing is enough for people when it’s philly

people have been shitting on him since the day one of his captaincy and you know what’s the only thing he’s had to say about that? ”a lot of articles, people talking, that's motivation,” is all he’s had to say to people doubting him

you want to talk about the 2017-2018 season when he came back from a slump and D O U B L E D his points, achieving 102 points and finishing ONLY behind CONNOR MC FUCKING DAVID?? and no one bat an eye???

you want to talk about how he’s singlehandedly dragged this stupid team of his to playoffs when they weren’t going to even clinch a spot to begin with, and not just once????

every coach he’s ever had have only had good things to say about his character, about how responsive he is to coaching, how hard he’s working to make up for his small size, and they’re always talking about how he has the right attitude and how he wants to make a difference every time he’s on ice

danny: ”when he came [from the AHL] to us, right away you could tell he was a special player and ready to take the next step and was going to help”

coots: ”he’s a true warrior — i don’t think there was any way he would miss overtime” [after getting hit in the head and having to leave the ice for concussion protocol, g came back to the tunnel to witness the flyers tie the game in the last minute of regulation and had to ask a security guard to let him back on the bench, and then he got back on ice for the ot]

he’s also always been a team-first kind of a guy, like when hakstol wanted him on the wing, he didn’t even hesitate — he’s always been a center and yet he adapted because he recognised it would be the best move for the team, and you know what he did with that? he had his career high season

”when it's not going your way it's important you don't get away from what works, what you bring to the team, what will help the team”

the rumour had it that, during richards’ leadership, the locker room was very divided and the team wasn’t a whole — you know how flyers are always talking about how close the team is? you think that has something to do with claude’s captaincy? you are absolutely right

in example, when they had their infamous 10-game losing streak right at the start of the season, claude called for a team meeting to make sure everyone was doing well and that the team was close-knit — the flyers won their next six games

when brayden schenn first arrived to philly in 2011: ”he took me in early on, showed me the way, even though he was a young guy, yet he was a leader on the team”

all in all, claude giroux has been undermined and underrated and forgotten and dismissed so many times throughout his career and he’s never once complained, he’s never once taken it and beat himself down with it — he’s only ever proven everyone wrong and nobody believes in the flyers more than claude giroux does! he loves this team, he lives and breathes for this team, and fuck if you can’t respect that. fuck if you can’t respect the man who makes the most plays on ice, who delivers the most pucks towards the next. fuck if you can’t respect the man who has, through all these years as a flyers captain, just sucked it all up and tried again. every fucking season, no matter who he plays with, he’s put up good stats and that’s because claude giroux is just that good, because he is an outstanding player who deserves the world

i don’t think a lot of people truly understand what it’s been like for him, and i’m not saying i understand either, but people who have made shitty comments about him this past season just. don’t. know. there is so much history and you don’t know because claude giroux has never once talked shit about his team, his organisation, his franchise. claude giroux has carried every single loss, slump and losing streak on his shoulder so no one else has to, and claude giroux has always come back, he has always rallied his team right back to it and that is not easy

tk: ”there’s a lot of guys that are talked about in the league, those big names, and i definitely don’t think g has been mentioned enough, and he deserves that recognition”

as a reward for reading this far,

Sid and Geno arrive in TO

X

Vampires:

Thirsty by witblogi 

Always Ascending by snoozingkitten 

Breakfast of Champions  and In The Blood by saintroux 

the little death by dadvans 

over-bitten by goodnightpuckbunny 

Ally by getoffmyhead 

Antidote by pinetreelady 

post-cuncussion hurt/comfort and vampire Geno blood drinking by sevenfists 

A City Beneath The Clouds by secretsidgenowriter

You Left Your Mark on Me by eyeslikeonyx

Setback; Recovery by werebear 

creature of the night by hawky(tinypigs)

More Than Blood by Emono

the sune will go down, eventually by cathedralhearts 

Baby, I’m Stuck on You by al-the-remix 

anyway, this is a series i like to call ‘sam carchidi speaks in a presser and the flyers don’t even attempt to pretend they don’t hate him’ 

From pool to ping pong, Travis Konecny and Travis Sanheim give you a tour of Toronto. 

reminder: today is the last day to signup!