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Churails anon, there is actually a teeny tiny bit of wlw. It’s definitely implied the two women are a couple, they’re just in the background. There’s also a trans character, played by an actual trans woman! They treat her with so much respect and love, it’s wonderful. There’s also a gay storyline, well I don’t want to spoil it. I’m on episode 6 so who knows, everything might blow up by the end lmao

And…another anon? I can’t tell, I didn’t think I’d have two anons telling me about this show but your typing patterns are quite different and this one didn’t identify themselves, also y’all have differing points of view on the gay storyline:

hey the show churails does have a middle aged lesbian couple in it! tho nothing explicit their love is talked about and known to everyone within the group and it also has an ep about a closeted gay man and *****spoilers***** the ending of that sl is a rather violent one

Oh, that’s so interesting about the actual wlw… I feel like, for my years in Pakistan, in the circles I’ve lived in, it would never be discussed, let alone approved of. And yet, actually existing in media! Wild. Sucks about the gay man, though. :/

Trans people…that’s always been somewhat odd, right, like, you see some living so openly and in a way, they’re tolerated, but like, so othered and kept apart, and only tolerated because of that distance. But maybe I don’t have the full picture, I lived such a sheltered, transient life there, I didn’t participate in and pick up on so much. 😮 I’m waiting to watch when I’m more in the mood for something this, well, heavy, but I do definitely have it on the list.

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religious anon here! yes, I didn’t realize that as well after watching and rewatching it. It only sank in with me because I had an epiphany this morning lol. for me, I think why I didn’t realize it right away, is because of how comfortable they are in their own skin that I didn’t question it. that all this talk of sex is just another tuesday for them; it’s normal and it’s okay. sex is such a taboo in a conservative religion that a fresh take like this feels like a miracle, at least for me.

sorry i have so much thoughts haha and, like, even with their eventual coming out, whenever that happens, it doesn’t hang onto the idea that God might smite them and send them to hell. It’s just a very real fear of people judging them or shaming them or, as in April’s situation, her bigoted father. i mean… is there any other religious show where they tackle sexuality and sex in general but the religion isn’t in question? (½)

(2/2) I have lots of love for this show and i deeply regretted that i judged tbh before i watched it. oh and btw, i like The Fellowship. It’s both endearing and ominous. haha

Yeah, I think we didn’t make a big deal because they didn’t make a big deal. It really is so unusual, I’m trying to think of the religious LGBT stories I’ve seen and it’s actually not that many, since I avoid the unhappy ones and that’s most of them. For the non-Christian characters, there were Muslims like Rana on Corrie and Adena on TBT, with varying levels of devoutness, and they actually seemed to be okay with it, but in both cases the show just genuinely never even brought up how they navigated the intersection of religion and sexuality, it was just…a fait accompli. 😛 Sydney on Saving Hope was devoutly Jewish and man, it WAS a huge deal for her to work through, something it took a long time for her to come to terms with. I really liked her story, but that’s exactly what you meant, right, where religion was something to Process, although that’s also very important rep in its own right.

There are obviously way more stories with Christians but I cannot remember a single one of them now, lol, I feel like most of them were people with religious family who’d judge them, that was the angle, they themselves weren’t seen to really think of it much or need to reconcile things, like Rana and Adena. All this to say that yes, I’ve not seen it done like this, where a religious person was immediately like, yes, I’ve accepted myself and I think God has too. As you said, it’s powerful!

I’m kind of curious at what exactly you were prejudging it for, but at least you know better now. 😛 And lol, the Fellowship. The Tolkien connotations would have been too strong, but I still think we can do better than Stepril. :[

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pride mubarak

Oh, thank you! You too! Pride Mubarak! Wow, you know, I never really associate the two things, they’re always mutually exclusive, me on the edges of both, but yeah! Yeah! Pride Mubarak!

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Are you still watching the bold type? What are your thoughts on kadena and the future of this couple? The fandom seems to have all but disappeared from tumblr

I’m not, I haven’t watched for a while. I’ve seen what’s been going on with Kadena and of course it makes sense the shipping fandom in particular is quiet when one character is barely around, but I still see some TBT posts. And if there are fewer posts in general, well, shipping in general tends to get a lot of fandom engagement, and this case, a lot of the original fandom were shippers.

This is more negative than you might have expected so I’m putting it under a cut:

I have two pretty conflicting opinions on Kadena and one of them is a pretty unpopular opinion on their future. First, I think that this show, which would sometimes even in s1, lead with plot first, has become a lot about that, and Adena in particular suffers from that kind of writing. And as their only Muslim and only lesbian character, I dislike a lot of what they decide to do with her and it feels bizarre that they’ll drop her for such long chunks at a time. It’s not rep when a character’s not there. 

But, as I said, the other conflicting and unpopular opinion, rep aside, just as a fan of coherent, internally consistent character writing, if Kat just isn’t really that into Adena, which is how all this comes across, just break them up for good. They didn’t seem interested in writing Adena as what she was, all the ways being a Muslim lesbian could have informed her character beyond what they showed in season 1, so just don’t. Don’t force yourself. I’d have side eyed that, but I side eye stuff I still watch all the time. It wouldn’t have been a dealbreaker. Just as long as the story is organic and not contrived because that’s what’s convenient. The more I find myself being pulled out of the story and having to connect the dots with my own justifications and wonder at what BTS drama made something happen, the less I want to watch.

If you’re asking about what I think the future of Kadena on the show might be, I think maybe they’ll go there again, maybe they’ll work through whatever issue there is now, I don’t really know.

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What’s it like being a queer muslim? Are you out or planning on coming out? It’s a bit of a loaded question would totes understand if you didn’t reply

Heh, it is loaded, and a bit general. Even within the Muslim community, my experience isn’t at all universal or representative. Being one is restrictive, for me, my parents are fairly conservative religiously so I don’t plan to come out, but they also emphasized school first for all their kids, daughter or son, and let us have the freedom to develop our own minds, so my path was a lot easier than a lot of other people’s, Muslim or not. 

Outside of family, it’s also tough because it’s two identities that are so at odds. It’s difficult to find support for one, let alone both at the same time, and in fact there are people from both sides that specifically hate the other. And it doesn’t at all feel like at least you’re getting support from both those sides individually, it just feels like you’re hated by both.

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Rana was coronation street, and her death wasn’t done under kate oates who’s the producer of eastenders so i wouldn’t worry too much

Oh, I don’t know, anon, I think there are very few writers who completely exclude it from their repertoire. They always think that in their particular case, it makes sense and is separate from the character being part of a marginalized group. 

But I wasn’t really thinking in terms of that, it’s just–it’s a soap, it’s gonna be messy. And possibly really short-lived like Shortland Street’s recent foray or, perhaps worst of all, just plain boring. Kana had great chemistry, but what I really loved was that it was between two characters who’d already been on for a while and had their own stories and were their own people. I haven’t read much into Iqra’s story yet but presumably her love interest will be introduced as just that, a love interest?

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steviemcfly:

cherpunchingyourcrotch
replied to your post

“This week’s SVU is actually the worst episode ever made by a long shot”

go on

  • it’s about a clear Ilhan Omar surrogate (with a bit of Huma Abedin sprinkled in) and also clear analogues of the Covington Catholic MAGA youths
  • in spite of Fake Ilhan being the victim of a rape, the whole episode is about how Fake Ilhan is hugely antisemitic and intentionally provoked the Fake MAGA Youths into appearing to harass her so Fake Buzzfeed could publish fake news about it; she antagonizes them by yelling direct quotes from Ilhan Omar’s twitter in a mocking tone mixed in with lines about how evil is in Jews’ blood or whatever, and then Fake Buzzfeed only shows the part where the Fake MAGA Youths (who are Jewish in the episode) get rightfully angry at her words
  • they never investigate her attack and instead try to discredit her the whole time, including investigating her calling Fake Buzzfeed before the protesters arrive to catch it on video, which is not a crime at all and definitely not a sex crime
  • she’s a secret lesbian and gets caught in a lesbian bar in Queens ordering “a dirty martini, extra dirty” with her hijab off *gasp*
  • her Muslim ex-husband assaulted her and it’s because of sharia law somehow
  • the DA pulls out a Quran during the trial to hold up while getting the husband to admit he did the rape because sharia law
  • when Rollins finds out Fake Ilhan is a lesbian Muslim, she says she shouldn’t run for office if that’s the case, and nobody challenges her on it
  • after the trial, Fake Ilhan’s parents confirm they still love her even though she’s gay, and then a random Muslim man comes out of nowhere and throws his shoes at her face; the last shot of her in the episode is her sitting on a bench bleeding from the head

This is so horrible in so many ways, insulting to so many different groups, I can’t even begin to explain how cruel it is.