[ SECRET POST #2548 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2548 ⌋

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

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Notes:

REMINDER: For people who needed extra time to finish for the FS Secret Santa - today's the last day to get in your gifts! Gifts go out tomorrow!

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 032 secrets from Secret Submission Post #363.
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

[fscom]

08. http://i.imgur.com/H8GHNKf.jpg

[(Anonymous)]

I think it's perfectly okay to mock polysexual demiromantic headcanon sexualities...

[(Anonymous)]

Same.

[(Anonymous)]

I misread that as 'Aromatic' instead of 'Aromantic'. Oops.

[(Anonymous)]

mmm... Smells yummy.

Secret 8 - Headcanons, sexuality, gender identity

[transcriptanon]

[Picture is a flag made of horizontal bars the colors of the rainbow.]

I don't mind people who have headcanons where characters are trans*/poly/demi/aromantic/asexual/genderqueer/etc. I mean, it's their headcanon, not mine, right? But I just find it kind of weird that characters who have never been portrayed to be in romantic relationships or anything are suddenly polysexual demiromantics or something. I don't mean it in a dismissive way or anything, I just find it curious.

Secret because I don't want people to think I'm phobic to this stuff or not supportive or something. I'm just curious.

Sorry for Too Long; Didn't Read and ugly secret.

[(Anonymous)]

It's fandom, and fandom loves shipping.

No matter who holds their interest in canon (if anyone), sooner or later pretty much every character will be shipped with every orientation and in every combination.

[(Anonymous)]

"sooner or later pretty much every character will be shipped with every orientation and in every combination."

I actually *wish* that were true, in some fandoms. I really enjoy unusual or unlikely pairings, and some fandoms are dominated by just a few super-popular pairings, with not much variety.

[(Anonymous)]

95% of all important characters in popular fiction is given some kind of romantic storyline, overwhelmingly heterosexual. I'm a shipper as good as any, but mainstream recognition of my sexual orientation is limited to That Episode Of House. Characters without canon love interests is the best I dare hope for to be emotionally reassured that it's okay that I've never been in love, and that I can have a happy ending without a wedding or a bedmate.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm sorry but why the hell do you need TV shows to reassure you? What's wrong with making up your own mind about your own life and making your own happy ending, just like the rest of us have to?
The idea that we are all supported by TV shows and thus life is easy peasy for us is just rubbish.

[(Anonymous)]

Pretty sure this is a repeat...

[(Anonymous)]

...Demiromantic?

Did someone read too many stories about love at first sight and think that's how it usually works?

[pantswarrior]

Eh, generally I sort of agree, in the sense that I don't get it...but I do know that sometimes something just COMES to me while I'm writing fic, and for some reason it works, and I wind up sticking with it. So maybe those people had something like that too, they were writing something that isn't shown in canon and somehow it just clicked really well for them for some reason. Headcanons don't necessarily have to have a reason behind them.

But when they don't, you're entitled to find them confusing and a little self-indulgent. Because they are.

[(Anonymous)]

I think some one changing that drastically CAN be done right. I love all sorts of headcanons for this sort of thing, but if it's DONE well. Bad writing is still bad writing even if it's socially inclusive. You don't get a pass for terrible characterization just because you're gunning for More Liberal Than Thou points. Make Dean Winchestor a demisexual homosexual aromantic trans man and I will buy it if you write it well enough. But if you go from Point A to "well this is just how it is, deal with it" with NO explanation, no growth, no nothing? And worse is that they usually NEVER stay in character after these things, even though NONE of them should have any effect on their personalities. All in all, headcanons that are well done? I love that shit, even if it's not MY headcanon. But bad writing will always just be bad writing.

[(Anonymous)]

Eh, actual canon often doesn't seem to have much effect on headcanons anyway. Though no super special headcanon will ever beat the one I stumbled across on Tumblr the other day where the OP IDed Winry Rockbell as a lesbian in love with a cisman (cue shitstorm).

[sarillia]

Wait, I thought the reason I was delusional for liking to imagine some characters as queer was because they were shown in be in relationships with people of other genders. Now it's weird to think of them as queer when they haven't been in a relationship and we have no idea who they might prefer too?

I'm very confused.

I'm just going to keep turning random characters queer in my head when the mood strikes me.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't understand YOU, OP. If there are no canon romances for a given character, then that character's sexuality can be anything. Even when canon romances exist, if someone identifies as demisexual/queer/trans/whatever, then maybe they want a character they like to also be like them.

As an aside, I find the complaints about demisexuals to be almost intentionally ignorant. When you catch yourself sniggering at the less-than-attractive half of a couple, "He/she must have a great personality", you might guess that the other half is demisexual.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm to the point where all these headcanons are driving me nuts. I just unfollow people who post about it over and over, but it's making me feel awkward in my fandoms too. Luckily my main fandoms haven't been effected much-- yet-- but a different fandom I used to do a lot of fanart/fanfic for has decided that one character who is canonically white is actually black, another (male) character is FTM, another canonically GAY character is actually polyamorous and god help the soul who draws/writes him as anything else. I just got so tired of "your art/fic is nice BUT you're clearly missing the point of ___ character" comments because I didn't keep up with the Social Justice flavour of the week.

[(Anonymous)]

I usually hate it because 99% it feels like self-insertion wish fulfillment rather than something that would actually make sense for the character, or in the case of trans* headcanon it's based on gender stereotypes - for instance, the assumption that any character who crossdresses for any reason must really secretly be trans.

There are numerous characters for which I think stuff like trans* headcanon could make sense, but those are never the characters that people pick for stuff like that. That just furthers my belief that it's less about wanting representation in general and more about projecting onto a character.

[(Anonymous)]

I have to admit I'm a bit divided on this.

In fanfic, I will readily write two canonically straight women as bisexual and polyamorous. I will read all the fanfic of this, and I wish there was more fanart of it. Because there's nothing saying they can't be interested in women (I suppose it's more like "canonically not-lesbian") and these two get along really great and have an awesome relationship and the polyamory is more fun than the love triangle suggested by canon.

Aaaaaaat the same time I would find it odd for people to claim the same women as bisexual and polyamorous in meta, because there's no support for that.

I guess the difference is that in fanfic / fanart you can get really specific about details and it can just feel like "I think this is a good and entertaining possibility", while getting that specific in meta feels more "I think they SHOULD be like this". And depending on the setting, using very specific labels breaks the immersion so a fanfic where someone calls themselves a "polysexual demiromantic" (though...I think terms got mixed there) might throw me off whereas a fic where someone simply behaved like a polysexual demiromantic, or described themselves in a way that referenced the concept but in a way natural for their setting (like an asexual person could easily say/think "I've just never been interested in sex and I doubt I'll ever be"), would have been like oh okay sure.

...after typing all that: the headcanon doesn't bother me, it's all in how it's presented and if it feels like the writer wants to persuade me the character IS that way.

[darkmanifest]

The best thing about characters who aren't portrayed with any particular romantic leanings is that they can be anything a writer wants, without having to work around canon. I remember when one of my favorite characters, who I decided was quietly gay because he paid no mind to anyone, was revealed to have a serious, lifelong crush on a girl. I mean, on the one hand, it's great he got that bit of personal characterization and of course I can say he's bisexual, but on the other hand, the headcanon possibilities went from limitless to limited, and that can be a real bummer.

[(Anonymous)]

Demiromantic? Seriously? I guess you can just slap any prefix on a word now and it'd be a legitimate orientation. Fucking sexual identity politics.

[(Anonymous)]

I find it anywhere from weird to annoying to 'okay you explained that well with your fic and I have accepted your ways'. It really depends on the person doing the presenting, because some fics have made me like pairings I wouldn't have thought of and most of Tumblr's bullshit headcanons make me want to punch these over-labeling annoyances in the face.

[(Anonymous)]

If those headcanons are used in a fic and they work, I'm perfectly fine with them.

But what has begun to piss me off is this trend on tumblr to just go and assign as many fancy gender/sexuality/disability/race words as possible to a char and then pat yourself on the back for being a hero of diversity and representation. That's now how this stuff works. And it's even worse if people whose headcanons are "well, he's a cisgender straight dude" are suddenly declared whatever-phobic. Newsflash, some people actually are cisgender and straight, and if you think character X is one of them, I don't think it's a reason to be rude to you.

[(Anonymous)]

demi anything is total bullshit

and the whole -romantic vs. sexual labels are bullshit too. homo/bi/hetero sexual cover romantic and sexual relationships. So you can't be 'oh i'm homoromantic but heterosexual' either you're willing to date/have relations with both and your bisexual or you only date dudes and you're bullshitting with 'homoromantic' because you like hanging out with your girl friends and want to sound special.