reclaimingsecond:

girlshavesharpteeth:

reclaimingsecond:

Gentle reminder that demeaning, devaluing, dismissing, or otherwise degrading the importance of a female character because she gets in the way of a popular (or not) m/m ship is really gross and not at all fucking okay in any capacity. 

I mean—demeaning, devaluing, dismissing, or otherwise degrading fictional ladies is NEVER FUCKING OKAY TBQFH, but it’s especially gross to do it because that lady happens to interfere with your m/m ship. It’s disgusting. I understand wanting queer representation in fiction. Hell, I want it TOO, more than ANYTHING. But erasing women and their lives and importance and impact on the characters involved is NOT, nor will it EVER BE, the way to create queer inclusive media that is healthy and progressive and actually makes everyone feel represented in an empowering way. 

Besides which, erasing women and/or women’s importance in the lives of male characters from a narrative so you can ship those male characters without conflict does NOT look like the creation of queer representation to me. What it DOES look like is the exploitation of gay male relationships for the sake of fulfilling the fantasies of people who are quite often not gay men themselves. And all of this at the expense of the women around those characters. 

Now, I’m not saying no one can ship things outside their personal gender identities and sexualities, NOR am I saying everyone must ship straight if straight is canon. I’m just saying that if you feel the need to degrade the importance of surrounding (female) characters to make it work and avoid conflicts that arise from their presence—if you can’t respect the fucking agency of female characters, or if you feel like you must undermine them because they pose a threat to your ship—just take a step back for a moment and think about why you even find it acceptable to fridge women just so your male faves can bone in peace.

Also worth considering is that the same thing often happens to characters of color, and that somehow nearly all of the popular m/m ships are two white dudes.

If your shipping doesn’t have room for characters or color or women to even be friends with the guys you ship, you’re doing it seriously fucking wrong.

(Reblogging again for the very important annotation above.)