Fandom Talks Back

face-down-asgard-up:

iamateenagefeminist:

thetaylordetroye:

zorascreation:

nahchillhomebro:

And don’t get me started on that goddamn Wincest.

Because gay men make the world go round. 

I actually legitimately don’t understand this either

Could anyone explain it

~*~ Fetishization  of gay men~*~

Which I think is the result of two things.

1. Women aren’t allowed to like gay men sexually the same way that men are allowed to like lesbians sexually. There is no such thing as gay porn for women, for example. Most women, however, are attracted to gay men/gay sex. Many take this out on fanfiction/shipping/etc. It’s a socially acceptable (well, somewhat socially acceptable) outlet for sexual attraction.

2. Gay men are more attractive to straight women because they are less threatening. A gay man isn’t going to chastise a woman for “friend zoneing” him, he’s not going to expect “rewards” for being nice, he isn’t going to pressure her into a relationship (sexual or romantic), he’s more likely to relate to sexism. Women might assume that he’s going to be more feminine and understanding than straight males. He’s a “safe” alternative to straight men. 

That’s my theory. 

This is also assuming the entire fandom is made up of straight women, which I think is a dangerous assumption to make.

Not saying that this doesn’t occur in fandom but I find this borderline dismissive of the queer fans. A lot of queer fans like to write assumed straight characters as gay because a lot of media lacks queer/gay characters for them to relate to.

Not touching Wincest because I don’t get that either.

Those theories are all well and good (and I’ve thought similar things), but I think the reality of fandoms plays out differently than this “women on the internet want every character to be gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay” thing.

SlashGoggles exist and all, but the most steadfastly popular slash pairings tend to be those that are rooted in a close, intimate relationship between two male characters. Those fans who think “Wow, they’d make a really good couple” are suddenly deemed as trying to “make” those characters gay.  

And when these complaints surface, it’s as though all the f/m and f/f pairings that exist in fandoms get pushed under the rug so everyone can bitch about men being “made” gay and how weird and confusing it is that women would want characters to be gay.

They don’t want characters to be gay. They want characters they love to be in fulfilling relationships. And hey, gay relationships between two close, intimate male partners can be fulfilling!  Who knew? 

I don’t see it as fetishization, unless you can show me that it’s something that is consistently done without any respect whatsoever to the characters themselves and purely for the sake of seeing two hot men get it on.  Every fangirl I’m in contact with has context for the relationships, beyond just wanting to see them have the sexytimes. And again, it’s not as though m/m relationships are the only thing that fans ship. So, yes, there is some sexytimes action in the fandom around gay male relationships, but that’s part of sexual expression in fandom and is equally applied (as far as I’ve seen) to hetero and f/f relationships.

Edit: It was also really important to note that not every fanperson is a straight woman, good call face-down-asgard-up :)

Ok so, is anyone else really suspicious about Amon’s “ability” to take someone’s bending away? Like something doesn’t quite add up for me and I don’t think it’s legitimate “energy bending” ala Aang with Ozai.  Bending isn’t something you can be taught, it’s something your born with (the abilities that is) and eventually you learn how to control and use it.  Furthermore energy bending is extremely rare and apparently only the Avatar (Aang in this case he’s the only one we know of who had learned/gained the ability) can use it. 

Unless they pulled a Buffy and Amon was actually an Avatar died, leaving Korra to become the Avatar and then was revived or something I don’t see how Amon has that ability.  

Personally I think it’s a new, more developed and powerful version of chi-blocking similar to energy bending but not quite.  I think Amon’s blocked a benders energy used for bending not taken it away like Aang did with Ozai.  It’s similar because this version of chi-blocking may either permanently block ones bending or just prolong the effects (though I’m leaning towards the former) but not the same. 

Either way, Amon is one scary dude man.