i cant speak for everyone because ive definitely seen the type of people who im assuming youre referring to in that post but i dont think that headcanoning a woman as a lesbian or butch means that they assume that every woman who behaves or looks like cassie is actually a butch lesbian. assuming someone is butch because they arent super feminine is really frustrating (especially to me, as an actual butch) but i think it would be helpful not to generalize about the reasons people headcanon a character as a certain label. personally i like imagining cassie as butch because as a butch myself its really hard to find actual butches in media and even if the character is feminine in the show headcanoning them as butch can be a way to connect to the character and isnt about how we're reading real people. i totally understand where youre coming from, so this isnt to say that everything youve said is a falsehood, but i think that its not really a problem for women to be headcanoning other women as lesbians. like i said before i dont think that people should be assuming that anyone who doesnt wear makeup is butch because it is harmful to both women in general and also butches by watering down our identity, but in a fictional setting i dont see it as a harmful act to desire representation in our favorite characters. someone being disappointed that their favorite character is confirmed as canonically straight is generally not coming out of a harmful intention toward women, but because it makes it harder to share their headcanons due to folks generalizing and assuming that the headcanon is coming out of a harmful place. i just wanted to share my perspective because, assuming you are a straight woman due to the things you have mentioned in that post, it wouldnt hurt to try to see where lesbians are coming from when we headcanon our favorite characters to be labels that we can relate to. thanks for reading!
I appreciate the thoughtful inbox message you have sent me! in fact, I am bi, but that is only relevant to the fact that I do think that this fandom has a strong biphobic leaning and bi headcanons are not welcome in it at all, especially when it comes to headcanons about female characters (this is just a general statement, not related or targeted at your thoughtful message).
obviously, I get headcanonning characters as different sexualities; I can absolutely relate to that. this is not the problem. what I do not like is the immature and infantile way almost every woman and cassie, first and foremost, in this show is described as "butch" just for existing as a female healthcare worker with no full glam on. I love butch women, and I love lesbians, but the conveyor-belt stamping of 2/3 of all women of the pitt as butch is tiring, you know what I mean? gimme some differently flavoured lesbians! or bi women! just some variety in characterisations.
also, it's just me being picky with characterisation and heavily disliking ooc, which goes hand in hand with packing women into the butch box with little reasoning in this fandom (I have a heavy dislike for male fanon characterisation in this fandom as well, fyi, just to be clear, but I do not want to go into that right now).
I enjoy well-written and well-thought-out views on cassie and other pitt women, and their sexualities, all that jazz, but I do get easily pissed off when I see the same surface-level generic boxing in of a character. because when a lot of pieces of work about a character are just about a generic strap mommy who can be exchanged for a totally different character because there is no actual substance of cassie mckay in her, well, this is an issue, at least for me.
