Reblog If You’re A Haikyuu!! Content Creator

Tumblr post: Stop scrolling! You need to see something that will ruin your escape and make you more depressed about the state of the world!

Me: *keeps scrolling* :)

Why wrongly tagging gender neutral reader can be harmful

+ a guide to do it right

From: a queer, gn-content creator

If you read x reader fanfiction, are a fanfiction writer / content creator who writes x reader content, especially if you primarily write f!reader, or support the LGBTQIA+ community, please read this article guide

This article is, not at all supposed to force you to write gender neutral or, alter your writing so it fits this guide. Instead, I wanted to give more insight on something that you might not know about, on a topic that's really important to me, and if anyone decides to change something in their writing after this, it would mean the world to me.

Before of: the focus on avoidance of female characteristics in this is due to the minority of male and gender neutral readers, which I thematize here, though, writing gender neutral, avoiding hints about the readers gender goes both and all ways.

This is a really important topic to me, as a writer but especially reader of gender neutral content, and I wanted draw more attention to this issue. And hopefully, inspire someone to think in areas they have never considered/thought of before.

What's so great about gn content, and who consumes it?

The great thing about gender neutral writings is, everyone can read it. It gives options for people who may not read female, or male reader, but still want to enjoy headcanons, fics and content of their favorite characters. For trans people and people who don't fit within the gender binary, but also people who just feel not sure, or maybe uncomfortable about their gender, finding something to read can be significantly harder than for female readers. Gender neutral writings allow people who's gender is a complicated, tiring thing to them, to still consume content. Not having to give up on reading just because your gender seems to be a barrier. It harms no one, and nobody's excluded: cis female and male people can still read it. Now only, everyone else can, too. So because of this, gender neutral writing has a much greater audience; everyone.

What issue comes up with the lack of gn content / wrongly tagged content

A majority of x reader fanfics are for female readers. Mostly in m!character x f!reader pairings

So as mentioned before, it's way harder to find something if you don't fit in with that. This also is the case, if you are looking for a non-hetero pairing, such as male x male or other queer pairings. So gender neutral writings are not only about gender, but sexuality, too. When it comes to relationship headcanons for a male character for example, and it's somehow clear that the reader is female, it makes it unreadable for male and nonbinary people, or every other non-female person.

As a nonbinary, trans and gay person who hyperfixates on fandoms regularly and reads a lot, I found myself struggle so often in finding x reader stuff I could acctually read. It was so frustrating, and at some point I just kinda committed to reading female reader works and sort of ignore it. I knew I was doing harm to myself, but I desperately wanted to be able to have something, too. Even though it's so dysphoria triggering and in the end, made me feel worse than before. Realizing there's nothing to read for you, because of your gender or your sexuality, can hurt a lot. It just makes you feel as though, what you are isn't normal, or, not normal enough for people to write about. Feeling that made me really sad. Seeing the exact content I was looking for, but not being able to read it just because it's fem reader. It feels like having no option, either consuming the female reader content or, not at all. You may think that you could just, read it and ignore the female parts, but it's really something you can't ignore. Alone knowing you have to ignore something the whole time while reading it, knowing that's because there's nothing for your group of readers, feels bad and you can't really enjoy the actual content.

While writing female reader is not trans- or homophobic, the lack of representation of gender neutral and male audience, creates a feeling of discrimination. That most male character x reader pairings are written as hetero, makes you feel just so much more aware of being part of a minority. It somehow gives you the feeling the hetero-way is the right way since it's everywhere, and you're the odd one out.

There's nothing wrong in writing f!reader, and I'm not asking anyone here to stop writing for female readers or hetero pairings. But sometimes there is no need to put a gender on the reader, and making minimal changes to make others feel included is something I want to inspire every artist and writer out there to consider.

Why wrong tagging is bad

Sometimes artist decide to tag (/name) their work as gender neutral spontanously, because while tagging, they see no reason not to.

But if you write x reader content not specifically as gender neutral anticipated, please check before labeling it as such. So please don't put notes as "gender neutral, I think / should be gender neutral" or "gender neutral, probably". Just check or label it differently / as not gender neutral. If you aren't sure and didn't check, you can note things like "not sure if gender neutral, can contain non-gn elements" or something similar. There can be things you havent thought of, which can trigger people. Tagging female (/male) reader or such, doesnt hurt anyone, while wrongly tagging gender neutral does. It gets your hopes up, and it feels worse when at the end it becomes clear the reader is female / indicated as female. Reading fluff while in a bad mood, to get called their beautiful girlfriend in the end, or to it being mentioned the reader wears a dress and make-up, makes you feel even more bad about yourself after.

Tags and CWs (content warnings) are in general nice. They are considerate and don't take a lot of work. It makes readers feel safe to read the following work, knowing what they're committing to. This can be about any kind of trigger or content warning, not only gender-related.

What to look out for when correctly writing gender neutral

Pronouns. The first step of course, is making sure gender neutral pronouns are used (eng: they/them), if any at all. You can mention they/them pronouns in your CW / description, giving information about used pronouns is doing many readers a favor they will be thankful for.

Certain Mannersim. While mannerism definitely plays a part, you can't determine a person's gender just by their character and manners/how they act. Speak androgenous people, feminine men, masculine women etc. This might be the trickiest part, cause it's not really to determine. Society has lead to certain manners and behavior expected from male and female people, that is a thing you can't really judge a person's character writing for. Though it's good to keep in mind that some things might come off as female/male, while editing or writing. You never now what might be a trigger for someone. Dysphoria can be triggered by a lot of things, and you can't watch out for everything, neither are you supposed to. Writing neutral can be hard when you're not used to it, it becomes something really natural once you've done it for a while though. What you can do though and which you're definitely off good with, is this:

Example for a warning/note: gn!reader, sweet/caring reader

CWs don't only have to contain extreme content trigger warnings, but they can include pronouns and or gender, as well as keywords to describe the readers personality (calm, energetic, etc.)

Adjectives. There are certain terms strongly associated with gender, and certain traits commonly used for men or women. In general i would recommend avoiding to describe the readers body. Sometimes it's in context to the story, lets say you got a request about a poc reader or reader with scars/freckles. That is another thing. Though otherwise keep in mind: the less descriptions on the reader, the more readable your work is for more people. This is why leaving out descriptions of the readers body/hints on skintone/ethnicity is better, to avoid excluding poc readers or people with another body type. Writing neutral in general prevents the feeling of discrimination or exclusion. Its completely fine to do specific x readers, it always depends on your context. But again, its good to remark it.

adjectives/traits to avoid when writing gender neutral: muscular, curvy, slim waist, long hair, tiny hands/feet, shaved legs, plush thighs

One of the biggest and most 'mistakes' when it comes to gn writing: clothes. If you label your work as gn reader, make sure that if you describe the readers clothes, to choose something gender neutral. Or don't go into detail about clothes at all. Clothes can be worn by anyone and don't have an gender, but you cant assume everyone is comfortable wearing a dress or make-up. Refrain from describing anything stereotypical male/female, as those can be triggers and makes assume / can imply the readers gender.

Examples for gn clothing: pants, hoodies, tshirts, sneakers, beanies, caps, jeans, "underwear", vests

Examples for what to avoid: dresses/skirts, high heels, make-up, bathing suits/bikinis, bras/panties, boxershorts, suits, crop-tops

If you see this, I would be very greatful if you reblogged and shared this, so as many people as possible can see this, and we can get it out there for every writer to see.

shout-out to the artists who aren’t so great

shout-out to the 11 and 12 year olds who are just starting out and are brave enough to post their art

shout-out to the artists who have been practicing their whole lives and still aren’t “good”

shout-out to the artists who post a piece they are proud of only to have it get 5 or 6 notes

shout-out to the artists who don’t dedicate their lives to art/draw for the fun of it

shout-out to the artists who don’t get support from friends or family because they aren’t talented enough

shout-out to the artists who feel excluded from the fandom because they can’t draw as well as other fanartists

shout-out to the artists who taught themselves how to draw and/or can’t afford professional lessons

shout-out to the artists who can only draw one thing and draw it over and over

you work hard on your art and i think that’s beautiful. you can do it, please don’t quit because people don’t appreciate your hard work. 

Heeyyyy- okay so, first I wanna say u seem like a very cool person so hi :D Ok but, if I could request headcanons with Mina and Aoyama from BNHA ???? Can be anything I just crave them-

Oh !! Hello there! Thank you for thinking that : D also, like, thank you so much for requesting, too. My askbox has been depressingly empty..

And of course! I decided to make to them sort of general headcanons since you didn’t specify it. Hope that it’s okay and that you like them!

—————

Ashido Mina:

- Mina is what I would like to describe as the Would-take-you-shopping-and-use-way-too-much-money type of person. Not even because of meaning to, but because she just enjoys picking out things and have fun with it.

- It’s canon that she loves dancing a lot, at which I would like to believe is because she went to it as a child. Specifically either street dance - hiphop-type of dance, before moving on to breakdancing.

- when she found out that she wanted to be a hero, she already wanted to incorporate the breakdancing into her attacks, shown to be quite affective when she gets the chance. Maybe a little bit dangerous here and there, but you know.

- Still talks to her friends from middle school when they reply or call her, although it not as much as last year. But still, Mina gets glad to hear from them.

- All of her friends are nicknamed in her phone. From Uraraka's 'Mochi' and to Momo's 'Yaomomo' - nothing comes without their own personal touches for her.

- Was really into Decoden when she was in middle school, as well. Although, she ended up complaining that some of the cute things would fall off sometimes and that she couldn’t have it in her pockets.

- Loves her new life at U.A, but still can’t wait to get started on her own hero work when she gets ready to it. Although, Ashido still has a rather long way to go till she can truly shine as brightly as she desires.

Aoyama Yūga:

- Aoyama isn’t the typical man that you would meet, but god, does he light up the room in his own sweet, funny way.

- Actually the type that you can have unexpected, deep conversations with. Sometimes often leaving you wondering what everything you talked about just meant, but leave one feeling better afterwards.

- Since he is originally from France and from the way that he speaks that French, possibly even his first language. I think it is, at least.

- Mumbles, counts and might even cuss in French, too. Although, I highly doubt that Aoyama would let anyone know if he did the last of the third. Can he even cuss? Is he allowed to??

- Read and still reads Versailles no Bara [The Rose of Versailles] to this day. Sometimes watches the old anime, but just likes reading it more. Reminds him of his home when he pulls it up, sometimes.

- Often has to get stomach medication from using his quirk. Midoriya and Iida will sometime pick it up for him, if Aoyama is too sick. Sometimes even Aizawa does, just don’t tell Mic, though.

- Is actually glad to have ended up in the class that he has. Where no one really judges him for being different and sort of of his own.

💕This blog supports…💕

Asexuals

Aromantics

Trans men

Trans women

Bisexuals

Biromantics

Men

Demisexuals

Demiromantics

Polygender

Women

Bigender

Pansexuals

Panromantics

Demigender

Heterosexuals

Heteromantics

Genderfluid

Non-binary

Homosexuals

Homoromantics

Omnisexuals

And so many more 💗💕

IF YOUR ART GETS STOLEN

https://www.tumblr.com/dmca Go there, and do as the instructions say. When my art was stolen, I got the post reported, and it was taken down. Don’t worry, it doesn’t just take down the sources post, but it takes down all the reblogged posts too. Please give this a reblog, many artists out there may not know this is here. And remember, ask permission before sharing, or don’t post it.

Why did I have to be wearing the same shirt [though it’s spelled 'One for all Deku' on mine] when I saw this post.

... what

what I say: my inbox is always open! :)

what I mean: ᵖˡᵉᵃˢᵉ

reblog if your blog is actually safe for bi people.

reblog if you believe bi people deserve to have a space and voice.

reblog if you recognize the specific struggles that bi people go through.

reblog if you know bi people are more than “half gay, half straight”.

reblog if you believe bi rights and representation aren’t just “catering to straight people.”

reblog if you see us.

reblog if you know we are safe on your blog.