Hearth @x-hearth-x - Tumblr Blog

Posts

redstrangers

paparoach

throo

Wh-what do you mean it’s from a birthday cake

throo

We could have been eating him

k1ttyy-br41nss

happy pride

luffycentric

crawls on the floor leaves this here

jackyjackdraws

@stanuary week two: Wanted

A family of criminals...

artsymeeshee

Monarch butterfly 🖤🧡💛

nutloaf

power-handmaiden

when I was in high school I had a literature teacher who had a policy of unlimited extra credit. All you had to do was read a book by a notable author (his discretion) and have a little chat with him after school to prove that you read it. No limits, no need for variety (one month I decided I really loved Kurt Vonnegut and just read everything of his I could get my hands on).

Yes, I was tearing through books constantly, and talking to this teacher at least weekly. Because even though I always loved reading as a kid, literature was always a very weak subject for me in terms of a teaching-to-standardized-test school setting (I just do awful on "what color were the curtains" type multiple choice questions. Those details don't stick in my memory THEY JUST DON'T). But that didn't matter for this class. I could just read my way out of any bad test score. I have always had fond memories of how I "fudged" my way through that class and "abused' the extra credit policy.

I was thinking about it again today, and only just now realized that he absolutely tricked me into being well-read, while my teenage self thought I was totally getting away with something. THAT MOTHERFUCKER. I hope he's doing well.

radcalculator

Finished Inazuma >83

idontknowanametouse

Oda really managed to represent well how strong and brave and powerful and terrifying queer people are. Bon Kurei and Yamato are amongst my top 10 characters, and Ivankov, Inazuma, Morley and Kiku are also such amazing characters. They all have their own fights and goals and dreams and are treated like other characters, but are also somewhat different because they have in common the strenght and will to be who they want to be whatever people say. They didn't ask to be born that way, and they will not pretend to be something they aren't just so someone else is more confortable. They don't let anyone stop them from existing or from being. To have your body imprisoned does not mean your heart is, too. Their freedom inhabits their own self.

Even though Oda messed up some parts, he still gets what being queer is about: being yourself, even though that means being a freak.

I am very lucky because I have awesome parents and friends who accept me as who I am, but I am very aware the rest of the world isn't like that. I never talk about my queerness in public because I'm really scared. I've always had troubles with fear and being afraid and anxious about everything, and am pretty standard-passing, and that combination of factors made me feel like I wasn't doing something right due to internalized homophobia/transphobia. Yamato made me see that my queerness doesn't depend on passing or making others know that I'm queer. It's about me being free on my heart while being myself. And I am so grateful to him for that.

gayslumber

the tragedy of being a one piece fan and trying to find inazuma fanart but the only thing that comes up is fucking genshin

maximumqueer

I've recently been thinking a lot about the queer rep in One Piece (particularly Ivankov and the the New Kama of Impel Down) and how it feels different from a lot of other main stream/popular media that also has queer rep in it. And the best way I can think of describing it is that it doesn't feel sanitized in the way a lot of other queer rep/media does.

Like. Normally queer rep in pop media tends towards cis gay (often cis gay white men) who do not present as overly feminine, who are "just like you" (you being cishet people) with the only difference being that they like boys as a boy (or girls as a girl). It shies away from queer culture and places its gay characters in heteronormative roles despite their gayness. Queerness in One Piece doesn't do that, and Ivankov and the New Kama are the perfect example of that.

Everything about them is queer. From the gay club hidden in a prison, to Ivankov himself - being a queer genderfluid drag queen whose power set involves being able to instantly trans another persons gender, to Inazuma regular switching between masc and fem presenting with no explanation.

I think this panel

encapsulates that feeling perfectly. This is in no way meant to hand hold the cishet audience. It is unapologetically queer, directly questioning not just the gender binary, but the very concept of gender. It celebrates the differences and diversity that is found within queerness in a way I rarely ever see in other main stream media of similar popularity.

I cannot overstate how happy - as a queer and trans person - this makes me. To have a shonen manga of all things celebrate the inherent weirdness that is human gender expression, and have it not be played as a joke. To have characters like Ivankov and Inazuma be important to the story (NESSISCARY even). And to do that without hand holding the audience, or over explaining what is happening in these scenes.

And this isn't even mentioning other queer/trans characters like Yamato, Kiku, and Bon Clay. All of who are incredibly interesting and complex characters whose queerness and transness is presented with sincerity. Yamato's trans identity in particular is wonderfully intertwined with the rest of his character, bleeding into is idolization/respect of Oden, and his desires and dreams (being to follow in Oden's footsteps and act as the protector of Wano).

And obviously One Piece doesn't have perfect queer rep (no piece of media does). But I would much rather have queer rep that celebrates queerness as a whole with a few missteps along the way, then purely inoffensive rep that strips away any and all queer culture, sanitizing it to be appealing to a cishet audience.