[ SECRET POST #5401 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #5401 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


01.



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02.



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03.
[Hannah Bayles (YouTube)]


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04.
[Squid Game]


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05.
[911]


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06.
[Holliday Grainger (The Borgias, CB Strike)]


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07.
[Ryan Bergara, Buzfeed Unsolved]







Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 19 secrets from Secret Submission Post #773.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[case]

Name the fandom. And repeats, etc.

(If you think something in this thread is a troll, please ignore it! Conversation is fine, but OT wank makes stuff harder to keep track of in this thread. Thanks.)

(frozen comment)

[fscom]

DAILY LINKS:

General comments → Off-topic discussion thread

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[fscom]

01. https://i.imgur.com/ZkB4yj0.png

[(Anonymous)]

I think the simplest explanation (although of course not the only one) is that you like those characters in part because you want to bang them, and you don't want to bang the genderswapped version.

And that's OK imo.

[(Anonymous)]

Tbh it's rare to find a well-written genderswap fic in the first place. It's always a complex issue and more work to make believable than casual fic writers want to put in.

In theory gender *should* not matter, but in practice it totally *does* matter due to how society perceives and acts about it. And characters' experiences are what make them well, themselves. So if you change those, you change the character. It's not their gender itself that forces the changes, it's the very different experiences that *being* that gender would have given them... that yes, lead them to basically be OCs.

It'd be the exact same for female->male genderswaps, too.

So I doubt it's your internalized misogyny, unless you for some reason adore when female characters are genderswapped to male and they *don't* feel like OCs and you like them better that way and see no issue with it and it's just the icky women you dislike.

If that's the case, yeah, start worrying.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't like genderswapped fics because nine times out of ten it's 1) done to turn a popular fanon queer pairing straight, or 2) a case of "this character now has boobs" and there's absolutely nothing different plot- or character-wise.

If you're going to genderswap a character, I want to read about how things would be different if that character were the opposite sex. I want to read about how the story would change, how their relationships would change, how their mindset would be different. If nothing changes at all, then what's the point?

For instance, in one of my fandoms, a large part of the plot has to do with a specific character being next in line for the throne. Genderswap that character into a woman and they wouldn't be next in line for the throne, which means an entire segment of the plot wouldn't happen the same way that it does in canon. That's interesting! I want to read stuff like that! But if it's just "[X] is female but nothing about the plot changes whatsoever," then who cares?

[(Anonymous)]

Same! I don't mind it in fanart (can be kinda cool!) but I don't want to read about it - maybe in a short crack fic where a magic spell goes wrong or the character ends up in another universe or something, but nothing serious. Especially not shipping fic.
(I'm ace so I don't want to bang them.)

[(Anonymous)]

I used to feel this way, and it really was sort of misogyny tbh. I just couldn't get comfortable with female characters because I scrutinized every single thing they did, said, how they looked and how they sounded. It was only when I started watching more and more female centric and female run shows (and read more female authors) that I began to accept vulnerability and imperfection in female characters. I still won't accept perfection though, because perfect characters are dumb and flat. Anyway, maybe you should just try finding more fem characters that you like. It doesn't mean casting off male characters you like, just adding more awesome characters overall.

[pantswarrior]

...I am going to agree with the person above who said that genderswap is a complicated thing, and even if it's well-written, the reader may or may not have the same feelings about gender as the writer, which may make it seem pointless, or may cause them to miss the point the writer was trying to make.

I mean I'm thinking here of when a friend wrote a genderswap drabble in one of our shared fandoms about 15 years ago. I was like "Hahah, this is great, I love how everything is exactly the same!" And they were like "...Actually the point was that everything was completely different." And this very gracious friend talked to me about it, and, well, tl;dr and tmi but I learned some things about gender identity that I had never even considered.

[(Anonymous)]

Honestly? A lot of genderswap reads like the author wanted to write a fanfic with the premise of "what if I were [swapped character]?" The most extreme example I've ever read was an Iron Man fic where Tony was secretly Toni, and secretly 19, and secretly all that booze was really just apple juice, but there are plenty of fics in plenty of fandoms that are just as self-indulgent (if less obviously written by a younger teenager). Personally, I'm fine with it a lot of the time because if the story is good enough I don't care if John Watson is suddenly Joan Watson with a bunch of oddly specific hang-ups and fetishes that probably line up pretty well with the author's. But, I absolutely get why someone else would read that fic and be annoyed.

[(Anonymous)]

honestly it's not because of the genderswap part. Genderswap, like most AUs, turn out to just be self-inserts and insert-OCs cosplaying as canon characters. You may go into it wanting to read an interesting, well-thought-out execution of an interesting premise but dollars to doughnuts the author only got as far as the "what if...?" part of the premise and answered the question with "they are me and will do and say and act exactly like me or an idealized version of me." I'll give the benefit of the doubt that a lot of fanfic writers don't intend the self-insert from the start but they're writing idfic anyway so it just happens naturally vs actually stopping to think about which things would have been different at which points in the character's life, how to manipulate past events so that their personality winds up more or less the same as canon, and how to form a story that accepts all of this as given without it being some sort of social commentary.

Or maybe the subconscious drive to write yourself as Tanya Stark overrides any good sense and even if you didn't mean to, your subconscious totally meant to all along.

[(Anonymous)]

I tend not to read gender swapped FICA because they just...idk. I'd have to be in the mood for them and 9:10 times I just want some MC/OX shit. When I want F/F, I go looking for it, ya know?

The only time I really enjoyed gender swapped anything (in recent memory) was those girls who did a YouTube skit/episode as Dean and Sam because it was REALLY good! They kept them in character, I had honestly wished they kept doing more/made it a real thing. I was so down.

[meadowphoenix]

even apart from the sheer impossibility of an "accurate" "this is what it would be like if X was another sex and gender," (i really don't think most people realize both how much gender/sex affects things and also how little) the fact of the matter is that both writer and audience come into genderswap fics with their own specific understandings of gender, and we need to admit that while there are some commonalities, similar understandings of gender cannot actually be assumed.

it's hard to tell if this is the writing or you OP without knowing more, but it does seem like being male is important to your understanding of your fave characters. there's no shame or blame in thinking about why.

[(Anonymous)]

I feel this way about a LOT of them, but some (Captain America MCU ones especially) really explore the difference in how we're treated and socialized gender wise. The CA ones even dive into other stuff - a ciswoman Steve or AFAB Steve who becomes much more masculine or even gains a AMAB body because of the serum.

The Bleach and other anime ones tend to suck and are self inserty, though. Also, the self inserty or OC-but-technically-this-character can be weirdly sexist. Like, the CA ones discuss it, sure, but the anime ones take it at face value and just assume the sexist shit is true

[fscom]

02. https://i.imgur.com/395Ydn6.jpg

[nocowardsoul]

Heartily seconded!

[fscom]

03. https://i.imgur.com/iT862Oy.png
[Hannah Bayles (YouTube)]

[(Anonymous)]

Oof, that's disappointing.

Though I am reminded now of hanging out with too many "music people" and having to hear critique of every singer's vocal skills if I just wanted to sing along in the car.

[fscom]

04. https://i.imgur.com/QoK3cac.png
[Squid Game]

[feotakahari]

People are saying that it’s bad to meme about a show that’s a metaphor for how real people suffered and died, because apparently, these people know nothing about the Les Miserables fandom.

[fscom]

05. https://i.imgur.com/MU7syB0.png
[911]

I'm with you.

[(Anonymous)]

I was very much not okay with him hitting Buck, but it did seem somewhat in character (he lashed out, in words, at his brother because he was angry about his father). Chim was angry and stressed out and sad and scared and I could see why that might have pushed him to physically lashing out. The problem mostly was him not apologizing for it after he had calmed down and Eddie sort of condoning it (though Eddie did the fight club thing, so he might have a skewed sense of appropriateness when it comes to throwing a punch). But, yeah, the narrative should have said it wasn't okay like it said Athena hitting Harry wasn't okay, even if that was worse. Honestly, it's a little weird how much Chim expects Buck to be on Maddie's side (like after the whole keeping Daniel a secret thing came out), but somehow doesn't expect him to keep her confidences.

[fscom]

06. https://i.imgur.com/h9towoQ.png
[Holliday Grainger (The Borgias, CB Strike)]

[iff_and_xor]

Huh, she does look like she’d be right at home in a renaissance painting. Something about the round face and the shape of her eyes and cheekbones.

[fscom]

07. https://i.postimg.cc/8zYg7VCb/ryan1.jpg
[Ryan Bergara, Buzfeed Unsolved]

[(Anonymous)]

Tar Season Anon???? HAVE YOU COME HOME????

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NS, NF, etc.

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General comments:

(If the thread contains spoilery/triggery content please warn/post as 2nd comment so it collapses!
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Your best Halloween costumes

[iff_and_xor]

What are the Halloween costumes you liked the most or were proudest of?

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Games thread!