Discuss and analyze stories here. Mostly anti SJM; unpopular opinions.
Appreciate well-rounded romance but generally indifferent about the shipping wars.
Pro: Tamlin, Lucien, Eris, Emerie, Tarquin, Cresseida. Anti: Rhysand, the IC, Feysand, Feyre
there’s a lot of discourse about the epstein files going around and i don’t think enough of it considers the victims and their lived realities. if i woke up every day and my rapist was the president of the united states and there were millions of people defending his actions or quite frankly, just didn’t care about it, i literally don’t think i’d survive. so quickly we forget they are real people.
so this goes out to anyone who has been a victim of sexual assault in any capacity: i am sorry. i’m sorry you had to endure that, i’m sorry it feels like you’ll never recover. i’m sorry it feels like you’re alone and your voice is lost. i’m sorry it feels like no one cares. i care. you are loved, you are important, and there are people who still care about you & fight for justice every day. you are not alone, there are resources to help you. the world is a much better place with you in it. yes, even on your darker days the world is brighter that you’re here. i love you.
I’m tired of explaining why a certain act is an abuse when it is clearly described word for word in these books. Why don’t you explain how these are romantic instead?
Why a man essentially stripping a woman naked and parading her in a room full of strangers is hot.
Why a woman in her drugged state forced to grind up against a man is hot.
Why a woman being dressed up in the same clothes she was traumatised in and kneeling to a man is hot.
Why a woman sitting on a man’s lap and getting off in front of people who have zero interest in such shows is hot.
Why a man keeping secrets about a baby growing in a woman’s body is romantic.
Why a man locking a woman in an inescapable tower is romantic.
Why a man controlling what and when she eats is romantic.
Why a man forcing her into clothes she isn’t comfortable in and taking her to a place she won’t be comfortable at is romantic.
Why a man training a woman in a skill she has no interest in is caring. Or to the point she is so physically exhausted she passes out later.
Why a man laughing at a woman with bruises is fun and flirty.
Why a man having sex with a woman, who is forcefully isolated from society and hurting, under his supervision is hot.
Why a man punishing a woman for her issues with her sister is caring.
Why a man dragging a suicidal woman up a hill, isolating her even more, without even checking on her once is romantic or healthy.
Why a man pushing a woman to be vulnerable when he never did so ever with anyone is romantic.
Without the names, looking at the actions objectively, if you still believe these are the ideal scenario in romance, you need to sit down and really need to reflect on why the concept of a woman being helpless with a man is appealing to you.
A thing to consider: when you're writing male characters, do you think of it as writing people, or as writing men?
When you're writing female characters, do you think of it as writing people, or as writing women?
In a lot of stories, men are written as people, but women are written as women. Men are written neutrally, with little to no explicit attention paid to their gender, while women are written with a lot of explicit attention paid to their gender. Women's gender becomes part of the story, while the fact that men are men is rarely lingered upon.
So if you're ever struggling to write female characters, or you're wondering why it feels harder, or if they seem less interesting or more annoying than your male characters, consider this: is it because you're focused on writing them as women, while you're used to just writing men as people?
This is a useful question to think about for writers. Sometimes gender can be a relevant factor to plot or how characters act depending on the context. But it is often uneven and sometimes done at the price of nuance and complexity.
Im too exhausted to support this statement right now, but I’d love to hear your takes on it:
I think Feyre really embodied this sense of toxic masculinity from “traditionalist views”, that while everyone suffers at the hands of her doing so, people like her sisters, Lucien, Tamlin, the women in her court, etc, suffer the most.
We all know she’s not a girl’s girl until it comes to Mor. It even gave me the biggest ick the first time I read Feyre think “I’ve never had a female friend before”. Like what do you mean??? You were rich for eleven years, there were women in the village to talk to as well- you didn’t start hunting until you were fourteen- what were you doing for nineteen years? Are you that unlikeable that not a single woman will befriend you?
And I’m of the full belief that Feyre coming home after hunting, tracking her dirty ass clothing through the house with no care, belittling her sisters who do domestic labor because she doesn’t view it as valuable, demanding she gets a bath immediately and overall being a fucking verbally abusive menace is exactly the same vibe as a 1950’s husband coming back from work.
I apologize but I’ve literally never hated a character more in my entire LIFE than Feyre Archeron, and it baffles me that there are people who like her. HOW.
The aspect of 'toxic masculinity' and traditionalist views throughout ACOTAR absolutely warrants more focus.
But I think the '1950s shit husband' feeling that you get from Feyre is because the narrative promotes a version of performative feminism for the patriarchy.
She ignores meaningful rights for all women and only she matters, where she climbs up from the 'bottom' and lands a reliable male authority who holds the real power. Sure she might make general sweeping statements or do 'nice' things for one or two people, but she doesn't actually back this up with actions where it matters (e.g the Illyrian women and Hewn City).
Her blatant disregard for domestic labors (work which is often associated with women's work) and her selfish view of the world (the 'I/we suffered more than anyone else') is just the tip of the iceberg. The narrative simultaneously ignores and objectifies women repeatedly (either in general or with specific female characters)
Feyre is just one of the embodiments of the shittiest version of a conservative white woman's 'acceptable' version of empowerment that's built on the oppression of other groups. Feyre's mentality is 'it's fine if other people suffer as long as I am happy'.
Feyre "I came back from the SC and instead of checking on my recently turned fae sisters, I went to fuck my husband" Archeron.
Feyre "I forgive my sister but if my family was talking shit about her I wouldn't do anything (except halfheartedly tell them to stop)" Archeron.
Feyre "I lock my depressed sister up in a house with open windows where she can potentially kill herself instead of trying to help properly" Archeron.
Feyre "I lock my sister in said house with a creepy guy despite my sister saying multiple times she didn't want to be near him" Archeron.
Feyre "I'm so nice to everyone until I became High Lady and let the power get to my thick head and started looking down on everyone including my first ever friend" Archeron.
Feyre "I think of myself so highly that I can't help but meddle in other people's business and spend my free time matching people up depending on the aesthetic" Archeron.
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✅ Vetted by Association: @bilal-salah0
Donate & share: Donation Link
I am reaching out on behalf of my dear friend, Mohamad S., who is faci… Adam Bin Ali needs your support for Help Mohamad reunite his family
If anyone is interested, I just found this foundation that looks like it was created by her parents and talks a little about her life and shares some of her emails and stuff. Since I just found the foundation, I don't know much about it but I thought people might be interested.
Shows how foolish and self-centered Feyre is. She can't even realize how grave this is, beyond just personal hurt. Like no shit, your breakup was awful. Even without the destroying an entire court part.
He'd logically be furious about what she's done to his people. Causing the death and displacement of the innocent civilians of the Spring Court who at one point did respect her as 'Cursebreaker'.
If anything, she currently would be looking a lot like Amarantha herself to the average Fae.
VETTED BY ASSOCIATION; Hammad was referred to me through Safaa and her campaign (vetted by 90-ghost)
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All of this. I genuinely don't get what the 'but they're still human' argument is supposed to prove. Yes, they are human and they choose to facilitate horrific atrocities against other humans. Specifically the vulnerable and marginalized.
On one hand, I've tried to forget about the ACOTAR books lately because SJM writes like these are self-indulgent fanfictions and contradicts her previous books anyway so literally nothing is logical since she worships specific characters in her own personal fantasy.
But on the other, I also feel a little more sane when I see people not making excuses for her and pointing out the awful messages and hypocrisy in the texts that she wants people to forget for convenience.
Like I don't want to take them seriously but the topics included are so serious and grossly trivialized / promoted that it warrants serious criticism
I've always, always, always, argued that SJM's racism is intentional. People undermine the conversation about racism in SJM by arguing that her racism is just a little, fickle mistake. I really aggressively need to push back against this point - I don't think SJM is an idiot blonde woman who does not recognize the racism in her writing. If anything the reason why I've persisted this long talking about the problems in her story is because I was initially taken aback by just how intentional the racism is.
For example, the Illyrians. We talk about how ambiguous they are, but I think its one of the biggest examples of intentionality in the texts. The Illyrians purposely operate in this realm of uncertainty. Whether or not they are actually men of color has always been a moot point - it's about the intentionality of creating this race of men that embody these very weird, intentional traits. SJM knew that she wanted these men to be dark, violent, and warrior-like, but she also don't want them to be specifically categorized as men of color because the story simply doesn't see these men of color as desirable (see: Tarquin, Helion, Thesan - think about how they are characterized). It's also why I've argued that the story purposely doesn't associate the Illyrians as lesser fae, even though for all intent and purposes they are. The Illyrians are simultaneously the best (leathers, weapons, fighting) and the worst (culture, misogyny, hyperviolent). The story is also very intentional about how it characterizes the Illyrians concerning Rhys. Emerie just so happens to be the only one of her entire friend group that's not drop-dead gorgeous; notice how Amren is also described similarly when she is introduced initially. Everyone in the IC is gorgeous, beautiful, the most beautiful, but Amren the only explicit person of color, is described as being just plain.
The point is that these are very intentional writing choices - eerily specific, in my opinion. SJM is very intentional about the ways in which she chooses to 'represent' people of color in her series (see: Nehemia, Sorcha, Nesryn, Nuala, Cerridwen, Emerie, Fury, etc). Even think about the ways in which characters like Alis border on minstrelsy in their depiction. It's not just the representation, its the way certain traits are aligned with certain people, specifically people of color. I remember I made a post on my last blog about the ways in which SJM has her characters of color operate in this permanent semi-disposable position. There is always a way in which their white (white-passing) peers are always explicitly better (see: Hunt/Baxian, Helion/Nesta, Tarquin/Feyre, Yrene/Aelin - I have words for this one too).
In short, I don't think SJM is ignorant - not in the way people think. I actually think she is much smarter than even her own fans give her credit for and its why both her own stories and booktok/tube/gram have honestly gotten worse. I feel like oft times the pro and anti sides are just observing the same things (literally - the arguments are identical), but the difference is the pro sides don't think its a big deal partially because they believe that SJM is a whimsy white women who just can't understand she's wrong. Its why the argue that SJM is 'working to get better' even though she's written, at this point, over fifteen books.
