Arxon/Arx-Just a Mess-Mostly FFXIV and pretty pictures- I'll probably only tag spoilers for about a month be forewarned-filter arxwols and/or oc stuff if you don't wanna see that nonsense
Fanfiction is supposed to be cringy. You're allowed to write bad. You're allowed to be cringe. Fanfiction is supposed to be self indulgent. You're allowed to be cringe. Let yourself be cringe. Fanfiction is supposed to be fun. Stop putting arbitrary rules on yourself and be free.
open tumblr, see something that pisses me off, write a snarky post, delete it, write a slightly more earnest post, edit it for 5 minutes, delete it, close tumblr
given the current climate this pride especially i feel i must mention that i love my trans friends, i stand with trans people in the fight against transphobic legislation and those who would enforce it, and this blog is not a good place for you to be if you do not vibe with that
"Women's bisexuality exposes the misogyny of... like, everyone. But because bisexuality hasn't been recognized and examined as a political issue to the extent other issues have been in the mainstream, we let it go unchecked. We don't recognize it as a specific form of misogyny against a minority group. We just see it as an individual quirk, or even something justified and progressive.
-Verity Ritchie, Why We Hate Bi Women
So much of our perspective on bi people today is shaped by this crucial coming-out moment in our history. Bisexually came into mainstream consciousness because of AIDS, and all the prejudice and hatred and fearmongering that came with it shaped our perception of bisexuality.
--Verity Ritchie, Why We Hate Bi Men
(takes a deep breath)
Okay. I want to try and have a good-faith conversation about biphobia in fandom.
Specifically, I think we might all benefit from talking more about what anti-bisexual tropes and stereotypes are and why they exist, the history behind them. Bisexual history is not as well known, and I certainly don't claim to be an expert myself. But some history and context might help some people to understand why bisexual fans react strongly to certain things.
Before I start, I will say frankly that yes, this was prompted by a recent incident in the FFXIV fandom where a well-known fan artist expressed sentiments that many others (myself included) felt were biphobic. I am not naming that fan artist because if you're in the fandom you're probably already aware of it and if you're not, well, it's out there, and this isn't a callout post. I am not addressing that artist directly because I don't know him or follow his work, and he's already been addressed directly and in good faith by people more familiar with him. This is aimed at a more general audience, with the intended goal of promoting greater understanding.
Just to absolutely emphasize this, do not send the artist hateful or harassing messages. It will not help anyone.
In all of this, it also important to bear in mind that queer people of all stripes are under attack to various degrees all over the world, and the fact that we are all navigating our safety and wellbeing outside of fandom only intensifies the hurt when we feel attacked from those we consider our own. With that in mind, it's important to keep some perspective. First, it's fandom. Fandom is important to many of us, and as with any group context, how we behave toward one another matters, but fandom is also a small niche hobbyist subculture and as serious as it may feel in the heat of the moment, this came about in a discussion about who gets to have their OC kiss a pixel person.
Second, the incident that sparked this is fundamentally an intracommunity conflict, regarding the way LGBTQIA+ people of different identities treat one another; I'm primarily addressing that audience, and frankly I think the majority of my followers are some flavor of queer (though of course there's some straight-and-cis folks in there and you're also welcome here so long as you're chill). To me, the artist in question who expressed the biphobic sentiment is still fundamentally a part of my community even if I don't know him, even if he wouldn't much care for me as an individual, even if he wouldn't think the same of me. The LGBTQIA+ community is not a social club, it's a political alliance, and at the end of the day we all need each other more than I think we sometimes realize. That informs how I respond to things like this, even when someone within the community isn't behaving well toward others. I also don't want to imply that homophobia doesn't exist within fandom, or that bi fans are immune to perpetuating it by virtue of being bi. Just as it is possible for gay people to perpetuate bigotry toward other queer identities, it is possible for bi people to perpetuate homophobia, and we all bear a responsibility to be mindful.
With that incredibly long preface out of the way, here's two videos from trans bisexual YouTuber Verity Ritchie that I think offer accessible context to some common anti-bisexual tropes. Each is under 20 minutes long. Obviously, this is not a comprehensive history of biphobia (though the creator has a lot of other videos about bisexuality and bi history, and if you find these two informative, I do encourage you to go watch more).
Because society is gendered, anti-bisexual tropes are also gendered, and manifest in different ways. Bi women experience a type of biphobia that intersects with misogyny; bi men experience a particular type of biphobia because they are men; nonbinary people will experience types of biphobia that intersect with transphobia and cissexism.
But if you watched both videos, you may notice a common trope that emerges: the bisexual as an insidious, malevolent interloper, invading both straight and queer spaces and tainting them, ruining them, making them unsafe. The bisexual as a dangerous outsider who fundamentally does not belong, and cannot be trusted.
Many bisexuals, I think, are familiar with the feeling of being perceived this way, and the sense of isolation that often comes with it. Before coming into contact with queer community and queer history, we may not be able to understand or explain why we are experiencing this, or why we react so strongly to it. But it does go deeper than simply rejection and hurt feelings. There is history to this trope.
And when someone says, "This used to be a safe space but then they [a group that implicitly or explicitly includes bisexuals] came in and ruined it," this is the trope that is invoked, intentionally or not.
Hearing this from within queer fandom strikes a particular nerve for me, not because it is shocking, but because it is so familiar.
You may also recognize this trope if you're a queer person of color, or asexual, or transgender, or nonbinary, or a lesbian. It turns out to be infinitely reusable.
And to anyone who has spent a fair amount of time in this fandom and interacted extensively with other creators, it is just... self-evidently obvious that there are a lot of queer fans here shipping all kinds of ships. Quite a few of those fans are bisexual or pansexual (and I've been using bi and bisexual as umbrella terms here, because I'm old, but consider that umbrella to include any and all multi-gender-attracted people). Among these fans you will find all kinds of ships and headcanons. And yes, this does include m/f ships (among any and all other categories), because for many of us, that is a part of our experience that we may reflect in our creative work.
It also worth mentioning that some bi women, in particular, have been driven away from shipping m/m because they found themselves regularly accused of fetishizing gay men. In other fandoms, I have seen harassment campaigns launched again female authors of popular m/m fic on this basis--in at least one case, led by gay men. It might surprise some of my followers to hear this, but there was a time when I was seriously questioning whether I should ever write m/m again because I'd experienced so much shaming around it. I did not, in fact, swear off shipping m/m; I still read it, write it, and enjoy it, and my AO3 catalog bears that out, but I won't pretend the discourse around it never got to me.
I would go on to discover, however, that there is nothing a bi woman can ship that exempts her from criticism and scrutiny. If you ship f/m, you are an annoying het shipper ruining fandom with your annoying het ships. Even a mention of the fact that you headcanon the characters as bi and that this informs the way you portray them will only get you further derided, and in some cases will lead to people openly questioning your identity or insinuating that you're lying about it. (The "straight woman pretending to be bi for attention" trope never goes out of style.) And if you ship f/f, your ships and the characters in them will be more heavily scrutinized and moralized because that is what happens to female characters generally. Or you will hear the characters and ships you love dismissively called "vegetables," implying that no one could truly enjoy them authentically.
You will never "win." The only winning move is not to play.
This isn't really about shipping.
Bisexuals are not invaders of queer spaces, or of fandom. We have always been here... shipping all kinds of ships, loving all kinds of characters. Our own lives and relationships are diverse, complex, and not always easily categorized.
And please, don't take the word of one tumblr fandomite, or one youtuber. What I've said here is incredibly incomplete. Go out and learn more about bisexual history.
But I hope that perhaps what I've said here can offer some perspective, and a place to begin learning more.
In 2026, the chicest thing a gay actor can do is never explicitly come out as gay but also make it abundantly clear that he is. Coming out is too modern. Staying closeted is too old fashioned. But this method merges contemporary freedom with Old Hollywood glamour and allure, and it weeds out the dumbest people who truly don’t get it. I call it the Pascal Method.
You clearly don't go here or to queer history and signaling, or both, enough to have this conversation and I'm not going to explain it to you. You could have asked questions, you could have done even a modicum of research. You didn't and you made yourself look ignorant. Goodbye.
#I'm fucking crying#this is an instant classic#this is the next meme#i can't believe I'm here to see a baby copypasta nary two hours old#I can't#lol#i laughed way too hard#iconic
Are you here from one of my fics? Or perhaps my posting about those little elves from The Critically Acclaimed MMO? Or from my aroace posting?
… well if its that last one this might not be the most relevant thing in the world but
REGARDLESS
I have fics that you may read at your leisure, and maybe some other things in my #my writing tag! My main projects at this moment are as follows:
Even a Man Pure in Heart: Werewolf AU, set between Endwalker’s ending and patches. Alphinaud is a werewolf now, and must wrestle with the personal and potentially geopolitical consequences of this fact. Rated M for violence and gore (poor Hancock…)
Heart and Fury: Dark Knight!Alisaie AU, set after the “A Malm in Her Shoes” official short story. After finding a certain dead man and his soul crystal in Witchdrop, Alisaie goes down the path of the dark knight. Rated T, for somewhat-more-intense-than-canon-typical violence (unlike ffxiv’s devs, I don’t have to restrict bleeding to a single decal around the mouth)
Get a Load of This Monster: Dragon!Alphinaud AU, set during Heavensward. The night before the journey to the Coerthan western highlands, dragon blood is slipped into Alphinaud’s drink. Somewhat understandably, he’s not very happy about this. Rated T for canon-typical violence and a touch of body horror.
I will probably delete that but tldr I'm actually kind of annoyed that we see Alphianud and Estinien in the Evercold trailer already bc I want them to shake it up a little. Give us an expansion with a pair of characters that haven't been focused on recently or at all and explore or deepen their dynamic
look ok i think the issue is they have kinda calcified the Scion Relationship Dynamics and let several (Uri+the twins, Alphinaud+Krile, ect) fall by the wayside. So the twins are mostly attached at the hip, which I kinda don't love bc it turns them into a Single Unit, and they both have kinda One Buddy. Alisaie's is G'raha, who is at least always around even if (my biggest crit of his writing) he tends to be the recipient of a scenes attention rather then giving it to others. At the very least he's niceys and hes not more important to Alisaie's story than Alisaie is to his they're just buddies. But Alphinaud's Buddy is Estinien, and a) Estinien ends up waaaay more important to Alphinaud's story than Alphinaud is to his and b) Estinien is always on the move. So it ends up coming across like nobody really likes Alphinaud much except his sister and probably the wol
im gonna say lorewise for her this takes place in her post endwalker "im so bored i gotta learn everything" phase and also she wanted to be able to help out Entlona and Mikana since they were both stressed with baby prep
trying to decide if I should do the new ce normally on entlona or if i should use it to try and speed level Aggi up to like level 55 in all crafting classes so I can build these sub parts my own self
vaporwave
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turnnoffyourmind
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