WIP

working in progress blog!!

[dontget2close]

album colours challenge: choose an album for each colour without repeating artists

❤️ Queens of the Stone Age - Like Clockwork

🧡 Between the Buried and Me - The Great Misdirect

💛 New Radicals - Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too

💚 The Spiralites - Ruff Night in Jericho

💙 Genesis - Trespass

💜 Ben Folds Five - Whatever and Ever Amen

🩷 Tyler, the Creator - Igor

🖤 Fiona Apple - Fetch the Bolt Cutters

🤍 Pure X - Angel

i'm tagging @presidential--suite @holehmckuckin @sink-up @lemongrablothbrok @junecast-moonfast @blackbirdcreek @boneslikebirds @phil-losipher @laueana @intimesnewhomo @carnavoyeur @yourfavoriteclown @smashyrhead and anyone else who wants to do this one!!!

[scoopstroopog]

❤️ conan gray - sunset season

🧡 the smiths - louder than bombs

💛 mgmt - little dark age

💚 queen - news of the world

💙 David bowie - David bowie

💜 Jeff buckley - grace

🩷 tv girl - French exit

🖤 the 1975 - the 1975

🤍 fleetwood mac - rumours

@arboreal-stop @mikewhoreler @theannoyeddragon82 @sadiesinkobsessedsstuff @sheilakijawaanii @impossiblekittydelusion @skeelly @coco6420 @camcamino @the-bogginses-are-gay @soliss-occasus @mqstermindswift @cityofstarsx @elliedafish @phoebephoebia @moonlight-froggy @august-shops @emmasdillema @sufferingfrommoodpoisoning @effervescent-sapphic @ghosts-starrstuf @bulionzkury @bylrndgm @stars-and-leather @starshapedana @icedcoffee2809 @dearfut-ureself @sstar-struck @mystuffynose @loserbaby66 @weirdo09 @ballad-of-a-teenage-girl @conanssummerchild @willzardthewise @crunchie-morris @smalltown--byler @thequeerlerfamily @shadowyyyidk @maradarlow @rain-on-the-moon @riverx0x0x @apjofan

[smalltown--byler]

❤️ the cure - kiss me, kiss me, kiss me

🧡 frank ocean - channel orange

💛 blur - parklife

💚 mitski - lush

💙 joni mitchell - blue

💜 mazzy star - so tonight that i might see

🩷 the 1975 - i like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it

🖤 ethel cain - perverts

🤍 fleetwood mac - self-titled

this was so much fun omg i love music

tags: @georgeodowd @claudiacreature @j-emini @puppydogmike @roryrocksbyler @bopbyers @auracobaltblue @miwiheroes @red-imeanblue @ofsleeping

[auracobaltblue]

Thanks for the tag!!! This was so fun

❤️ slipknot- slipknot

🧡 Metallica- master of puppets

💛 the Rah band- past, present & future

💚 type o negative- October rust

💙 the doors- the soft parade

💜 the smiths- the smiths

🩷 air - the virgin suicides

🖤 korn- life is peachy

🤍 David Bowie- Aladdin sane

Tags (no pressure):

@mikeandwillsweddingofficiant @mikewheelerisaqueerler @columbinairlgirl @roryrocksbyler @lost-in-fictional-universe @greycoloredhounds @awfulbells @puppydogmike @queen-of-hawkins-why-ler @miwiheroes @buckleybeat @mooncafex @frogsdobegay @aloyxwrites @meowyster @just-the-gatekeeper @imisscloudsimiss-you @goodluckwheeelah @oliveespineapples

[awfulbells]

Hiii, thank you omg 🦭🦭

❤️ Mother Mother – Inside

🧡 Hozier – Hozier

💛 Mitski – Nothing's About to Happen to Me

💚 Haley Heynderickx – I Need to Start a Garden

💙 Sabrina Carpenter – Short n' Sweet (Deluxe)

💜 Big Thief – Masterpiece

🩷 Sir Chloe – Party Favors

🖤 Sofia Isella – I Can Be Your Mother

🤍 Radiohead – OK Computer

(Honorable mention to "Bury Me At Makeout Creek" by Mitski)

TAGS!! @ab0utellie @pendragonstarz @afoc717 @itsthe-forme @cocowkitty @puppydogmike (no pressure) + everyone who sees this and wants to join!

[pendragonstarz]

OKAY THIS WAS FUNNNN 🙏🏼🙏🏼 thanks for the tag @awfulbells and @lyl4c-is-confused <3

❤️ Fontaines D.C — skinty fia

🧡 ENHYPEN — Manifesto: Day 1

💛 STAYC — Staydom

💚 Lyn Lapid — to love in the 21st century

💙 Conan Gray — Wishbone

💜 TXT — The Dream Chapter: Eternity

💖 BTS — MAP OF THE SOUL: PERSONA

🖤 Arctic Monkeys — AM

🤍 Choi Yeonjun — No Labels: part 01

( Amazing albums btw I recommend all of them 🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️ )

Tagging @dany-is-bored @dearwise @aloyxwrites @sunchildsatoru @barium-nitrate @ab0utellie @miwiheroes @someone-gyu (+ anyone who wants to join! No pressure)

[sunchildsatoru]

thank you for the tag! <3

❤️ superache — conan gray

🧡 how did i get here? — louis tomlinson

💛 emails i can’t send — sabrina carpenter

💚 born to die: the paradise edition — lana del rey

💙 hit me hard and soft — billie eilish

💜 youngblood — 5sos

🩷 harry styles — harry styles

🖤 eternal sunshine deluxe: brighter days ahead — ariana grande

🤍 folklore — taylor swift

tags! @miwiheroes @flickergatedaughter @the-black-pharade @hollowedcathedral @0ceansoftime @puppydogmike @withlovemike @buckleybeat @adziedoodlesphan and anyone who wants to join 🫰🏻

[0ceansoftime]

thank you for the tag!

❤️ flesh balloon - pale saints

🧡 queer - the wolfgang press

💛 in the dark we live (thee lite) - aphrohead

💚 brat - charli xcx

💙 the utopian experience - p.m dawn

💜 kiss all the time, disco occasionally - harry styles

🩷 infinity within - deee-lite

🖤 perverts - ethel cain

🤍 lies in the eyes of love - part time

no pressure tags : @neverrsurrender @cosmorom @withlovemike @miwiheroes + anyone else who wants to join :)

[withlovemike]

thank you and @sunchildsatoru for the tag!! <3

❤️ the empire of the vampire by paralysed age

🧡 easter by patti smith group

💛 театр pipino by vivienne mort

💚 from the pyre by the last dinner party

💙 бестіарій by лея

💜 ocean rain by echo & the bunnymen

🩷 tinderbox by siouxsie and the banshees

🖤 franz ferdinand by franz ferdinand

🤍 faith by the cure

tagging @nereies @miwiheroes @miwinthealps + open tag for anyone who wants to join!

[millkyquartz]

❤️ PinkPantheress - Fancy That 🧡 Tyler, the Creator - Flower Boy 💛 Mac Demarco - This Old Dog 💚 No Vacation - Amo XO 💙 The Marias - Submarine 💜 Olivia Rodrigo - Guts 🩷 Beach Bunny - Tunnel Vision 🖤 Billie Eilish - When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? 🤍 Beabadobee - Space Cadet no pressure tags: @thealexchen @spacedlexi + anyone who wants to join

[prokopetz]

It just kills me when writers create franchises where like 95% of the speaking roles are male, then get morally offended that all of the popular ships are gay. It’s like, what did they expect?

[veteratorianvillainy]

#friendly reminder that I once put my statistics degree to good use and did some calculations about ship ratios#and yes considering the gender ratios of characters#the prevalence of gay ships is completely predictable (via sarahtonin42)

[persephoneshadow-deactivated202]

I feel this is something that does often get overlooked in slash shipping, especially in articles that try to ‘explain’ the phenomena. No matter the show, movie or book, people are going to ship. When everyone is a dude and the well written relationships are all dudes, of course we’re gonna go for romance among the dudes because we have no other options.

[prokopetz]

Totally.

A lot of analyses propose that the overwhelming predominance of male/male ships over female/female and female/male ships in fandom reflects an unhealthy fetishisation of male homosexuality and a deep-seated self-hatred on the part of women in fandom. While it’s true that many fandoms certainly have issues gender-wise, that sort of analysis willfully overlooks a rather more obvious culprit.

Suppose, for the sake of argument, that we have a hypothetical media franchise with twelve recurring speaking roles, nine of which are male and three of which are female.

(Note that this is actually a bit better than average representaton-wise - female representation in popular media franchises is typicaly well below the 25% contemplated here.)

Assuming that any character can be shipped with any other without regard for age, gender, social position or prior relationship - and for simplicity excluding cloning, time travel and other “selfcest”-enabling scenarios - this yields the following (non-polyamorous) possibilities:

Possible F/F ships: 3 Possible F/M ships: 27 Possible M/M ships: 36

TOTAL POSSIBLE SHIPS: 66

Thus, assuming - again, for the sake of simplicity - that every possible ship is about equally likely to appeal to any given fan, we’d reasonably expect about (36/66) = 55% of all shipping-related media to feature M/M pairings. No particular prejudice in favour of male characters and/or against female characters is necessary for us to get there.

The point is this: before we can conclude that representation in shipping is being skewed by fan prejudice, we have to ask how skewed it would be even in the absence of any particular prejudice on the part of the fans. Or, to put it another way, we have to ask ourselves: are we criticising women in fandom - and let’s be honest here, this type of criticism is almost exclusively directed at women - for creating a representation problem, or are we merely criticising them for failing to correct an existing one?

[observethewalrus]

YES YES YES HOLY SHIT YES FUCKING THANK YOU!

[ainedubh]

Also food for thought: the obvious correction to a lack of non-male representation in a story is to add more non-males. Female Original Characters are often decried as self-insertion or Mary Sues, particular if romance or sex is a primary focus.

[slitthelizardking]

I really appreciate when tumblr commentary is of the quality I might see at an academic conference. No joke.

[lierdumoa]

This doesn’t even account  for the disparity in the amount of screen time/dialogue male characters to get in comparison to female characters, and how much time other characters spend talking about male characters even when they aren’t onscreen. This all leads to male characters ending up more fully developed, and more nuanced than female characters. The more an audience feels like they know a character, the more likely an audience is to care about a character. More network television writers are men. Male writers tend to understand men better than women, statistically speaking. Female characters are more likely to be written by men who don’t understand women vary well. 

But it’s easier to blame the collateral damage than solve the root problem.

[destinationtoast]

Yay, mathy arguments. :)

This is certainly one large factor in the amount of M/M slash out there, and the first reason that occurred to me when I first got into fandom (I don’t think it’s the sole reason, but I think it’s a bigger one than some people in the Why So Much Slash debate give our credit for). And nice point about adding female OCs.

In some of my shipping-related stats, I found that shows with more major female characters lead to more femslash (also more het).  (e.g. femslash in female-heavy media; femslash deep dive) I’ve never actually tried to do an analysis to pin down how much of fandom’s M/M preference is explained by the predominance of male characters in the source media, but I’m periodically tempted to try to do so.

[olderthannetfic]

All great points. Another thing I notice is that many shows are built around the idea that the team or the partner is the most important thing in the universe. Watch any buddy cop show, and half of the episodes have a character on a date that is inevitably interrupted because The Job comes first… except “The Job” actually means “My Partner”.

When it’s a male-female buddy show, all of the failed relationships are usually, canonically, because the leads belong together. (Look at early Bones: she dates that guy who is his old friend and clearly a stand-in for him. They break up because *coughcoughhandwave*. That stuff happens constantly.) Male-male buddy shows write the central relationship the exact same way except that they expect us to read it as platonic.

Long before it becomes canon, the potential ship of Mulder/Scully or Booth/Bones or whatever lead male/female couple consumes the fandom. It’s not about the genders involved. Rizzoli/Isles was like this too.

If canon tells us that no other relationship has ever measured up to this one, why should we keep them apart? Don’t like slash of your shows, prissy writers? Then stop writing all of your leads locked in epic One True Love romance novel relationships with their same-sex coworkers. Give them warm, funny, interesting love interests, not cardboard cutouts…

And then we will ship an OT3.

[kyraneko]

I’m going to bring up (invent?) the concept of subjectification.

As in, people gravitate to the characters given the most depth, complexity, and satisfying interactions for their shipping needs, because those characters are most human, and we want the realest characters to play with.

In a lot of media, the most depth gets handed to male characters.

And, oftentimes, even when the screentime and depth and interactions are granted equally well to female characters, there can be a level of, for lack of a better word, dis-authenticity to those female characters: they are pared down, washed out, or otherwise made slightly less themselves than they could be, in the interest of making them decorative, or likeable, or “good,” or keeping them from upstaging or emasculating their male companions, or just that the writer whose job it is to write them doesn’t know how to write women the way they write men.

And you get the characterization equivalent of that comparison chart where so many animated female characters have the same facial features because the animators and designers are so worried about not letting them be ugly.

When you have a group that’s allowed to be themselves, warts and all, and another group that has to be decorative at all costs, the impression given on some level is that the decorative quality is making up for a shortcoming. That they wouldn’t be enough in their own right.

And sometimes that cost is authenticity. The interesting, striking, awe-inspiring, bold and glorious unapologetic selfhood that draws the viewer most particularly to those characters who are unapologetic in their particular existence, standing clear of the generic and bland and unchallenging “safe” appearances.

It is authenticity, not beauty, which powers subjectification. The love for a character, not because they are perfect, but because they are them.

They can be pretty, sure. They can be sweet. But being pretty and sweet is not a replacement, and too many female characters have been written by writers who think it is, while the interest—in appearance, in personality, in interactions, in plot development—goes to the men.

And when that happens, well. Surprise, surprise, that’s where the shipping goes.

[whetstonefires]

Yeah I don’t really ship but I do write a fair amount of fanfic, and in most franchises working with the female characters is a chore.

You have to do so much of the work yourself, because the canon left them unfinished, with huge gaps or unexplored contradictions that you have to somehow resolve. Every female character you decide to integrate into your fanwork in some major role constitutes an undertaking in her own right as you patch together an understanding of her sufficient to model a consistent set of reactions and priorities &c.

The dudes just get handed to you. Even the ones whose canon is a mess have properly developed character cores.

That you don’t have to unearth and piece together like some sort of volunteer archeologist coming up with theories way more complex than the available artifacts truly support.

[headspace-hotel]

Guys read this this is an amazing breakdown of it

[totallysilvergirl]

ALWAYS reblog.

[slitherpunk]

the more girls you add to a story the more yuri situations you're able to produce.... something to consider

[leonkennedysprostate]

for those wanting to help venezuelans affected by the bombings through donations, these are currently the best ways to go. will add more links as more is set up

cruz roja (red cross)

doctors without borders

[bylerworld]

"you understand me more than anyone" you two literally share no interests

[psapph]

not to get woke but this is your reminder to support actually queer media made by queer individuals. don’t ever trust netflix to deliver any satisfying representation: it really just isn’t profitable enough, and that’s all they’ll ever care about

[michalwheeler-deactivated202601]

THIS.

[a-a-a-a-a-deactivated20260420]

I swear that at least ONE of us is gonna create an actually good queer representation in a TV show/film and in interviews will be like “Yeah I got the inspiration when I was queerbaited by byler”

[miwiheroes]

YES PLS someone needs to write a book fixing this whole mess and actually release it (me, ill be doing that)

[rokusasuxiii]

anyway. i’m being completely serious when i say that so many of you should be writing and publishing your own stories. if two mediocre white men can write a half assed story and get critical acclaim, just imagine what you can do

[idkwhat2dowiththis]

i'm sorry but, Jonathan's little anti-capitalist short film had me rolling my eyes far back...so rich coming from Netflix.

[jellyfish-enthousiast]

Breaking news! Popular piece of media doesn’t care about gay people enough to give us any significant love stories and just pushes us to the side! Who knew!

[ezkel]

ok so mike IS just badly written. ok. yeah I'm not upset that my favourite character doesn't make sense

[finalgirlwillbyers]

They really had Will give a love confession as El to save Mike and El's relationship. Framed it as a moment of growth.

Fuck this show.

[qulizalfos]

i’m SO fucking mad. ““anthem of the outc*sts”” okay explain kali, a woman of color, who had her entire life ripped from her when she was a child, was abused and tortured again and again and finally scraped a life together only for it to be shot to pieces, watched her friends die in front of her, was dragged back to her lowest point for years, rescued only for her to be abandoned when it mattered most, getting killed by a soldier. all her hope eventually turns to ruin and it’s brushed aside over and over. it’s genuinely sickening

[ezkel]

ok so mike IS just badly written. ok. yeah I'm not upset that my favourite character doesn't make sense

[millkyquartz]

Can anti/non Bylers stop using the fucking Byler tag like we don’t want to see y’all defending this shit

[daniartonline]

The Party ⚔️✨

[millkyquartz]

I’m not even a huge Stranger Things fan, nor am I a huge shipper in that particular fandom but I immediately muted the subreddit after seeing all the anti-Byler arguments. Because wdym people are seriously making “why can’t two male characters just be friends without shippers making them gay” “let two guys be good friends” takes ??? As if there’s a shortage of male friendships in television 😭 WHERE are these examples of male friendships always being turned into gay romance? Where is it, genuinely? Like it just sounds like people getting mad over harmless fanon content… which mind you has existed since forever.

I don’t know what Will and Mike’s relationship will look like by the end of the series, but it bothers me how the ultimate conclusion for anti-Byler arguments is “You won’t get with your unrequited love, but you just have to accept who you are!” like that’s not something queer people experience on a daily basis. Why do we need that lesson beaten into our heads on TV as well. God I’m just so tired