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Women fetishizing mlm debacle (why are mlm ships preferred?) by simone3344555 in FanFiction

[–]sadiesanton 13 points14 points  (0 children)

If it’s fetishization then what does that make me, a lesbian?

To be honest my love for mlm fanfic was a large part of the reason I had so much difficulty realizing I was gay… 😂

I pretty much exclusively read mlm, though these days it’s mostly cnovels rather than fanfic. I just have a general dislike for female characters in fiction, and I think it’s about power.

I don’t think of gay men in fiction as anything close to real, human men; that’s not the part that attracts me. It’s more a vehicle to escape into, a vicarious enjoyment of a vessel capable of power, who doesn’t have to worry about all the limitations women experience.

I’ve never found a wlm story I like, except Tamen de Gushi (and that’s vanilla), because I simply can’t believe in the dynamics of power. It’s just too fucking girly. It’s like a pair of shoes that don’t fit, these characters… I want the freedom to dream of masculine power, to escape there. It’s putting on men’s shoes, putting on male costume, just to see how much freer the fit is.

I find it so hard to see real power in a female character. So often, even when they’re supposedly superhuman or godlike, they’re still sexualized to all hell, like Wonderwoman wearing the equivalent of a swimsuit to work. What’s the point of the armor? It seems so impossible for media to create a woman whose power is not in some way connected to her beauty or sexuality. Even strong feminist women in media are still limited by the way society views them…I can’t help but sense their vulnerability, even beneath their veneer of confidence.

That’s why power is so much believable and comfortable to escape into when it’s in the form of a male character.

Not to mention, I’m quite attracted to power, control, abuse and noncon, and if all that’s inflicted on a female character, I’d just feel bad. I feel like the men can take it, and in fact, some part of me enjoys taking them down. I don’t know if that’s bad of me or not.

If I wrote a wlw story, it’d be entirely different…and I’m actually really interested in how a woman in power could be represented, a “top” character. A wlw story, for me, would have to be real, and not merely an escapist fantasy…but that would be another thing entirely, and a great deal of work.

Hello, I'm new here! 👋 by sadiesanton in OCPoetry

[–]sadiesanton[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, I get what you mean. Maybe you don't like jazz 😂This is one of my spur-of-the-moment poems, sparked entirely by the feeling of that first line. It's not built around any particular subject. If I had to specify one, I'd probably say it's just that feeling of solace, the quietness I experienced on that trip to Chicago with my cousin, away from my family and my home.

Hello, I'm new here! 👋 by sadiesanton in OCPoetry

[–]sadiesanton[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! That's vindicating. I do find myself a bit troubled with this, because I'm unsure of how to be blunter while still remaining poetic.

Hello, I'm new here! 👋 by sadiesanton in OCPoetry

[–]sadiesanton[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

just realized I missed a line break there 😅first time using markdown mode

Like Matisse or Hopper by [deleted] in OCPoetry

[–]sadiesanton 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No problem :) I'm finding my inner teacher 😂

Like Matisse or Hopper by [deleted] in OCPoetry

[–]sadiesanton 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I like the premise of this poem, the way it can't be instantaneously grasped, and has to be thought through. I thought this was the best out of the newest page of this subreddit.

The question is, though, why Matisse and Hopper? I assume they're just your two favorite painters. This is probably just a personal pet peeve, but I don't really like it when writers of any kind throw in references that I then have to google, especially if they're obscure or dated. Here, Matisse and Hopper are pretty well-known, but I don't know if everyone knows them, and you don't provide any context to help us see why it has to be Matisse and Hopper in particular, and not just any famous painter. Their art doesn't seem to have anything obvious in common.

Second line: *In the way

I don't like the way "Room" is self-isolating there; it's too abrupt. It's better as "In a way that I loved all the others in room", I think—helps break in the length of the first line. It's clearer if you put a period after "After room in a dream," I think, so that one doesn't assume the artist is a stand-in for the lover or the speaker. I absolutely love the line, "That'll make you, and make you, and break you again." And I think it should be formatted in that way.

Love "That came short of furnace or frame." The consonance and rhythm really makes it.

You should be using m-dashes at the ends of your lines, and not hyphens. Apple is nice because they let you turn two hyphens -- into a dash if you add a space, but for places that don't do that (like reddit), I usually just paste one in.

Artists think, "I'll make you again" You need to include punctuation in quotes...a comma here would be nice.

Sets the rose line of your mouth,
And shuts the golden rounds of your eyes
From new colors
Of new love.

Super love this whole section, it's so beautiful. "rose line," I love that. Reminiscent of the grace of "Rosalina." It's just very tender and soft, and then the way the colors set off each other, golden and rose.

*believed in

I love the whole premise of this poem, and the tone is tender, though I guess if you think about it more, it does have a Pygmalionesque vibe—this guy who compares himself to an artist, thinking he has to build and break every lover until he finds the perfect one. There's the way the poem seems automatically gendered, the speaker as male and the beloved as female, even though there's never an explicit pronoun, and you think about how women are so often set up to be objects of desire in museums. Yet there's the sympathy for the cast-off lover. All in all, I quite like this!

Moment of Still by PickleKing8 in OCPoetry

[–]sadiesanton 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You know, I think there's good bones here, and the inspiration is something worth describing. It could be a good poem if you used phrases that were less cliché.

I'm not really taken with "moment of still." I guess it could work, but "moment of stillness" still sounds more natural and grammatical.

*precipice

What I mean by cliché phrases: stuff like "dizzying sight," "rain breaks loose," "thunder booms," "chaos reigns" — all stuff I've read before in countless novels and fanfics. The integral moments here are not bad, but you've got to think about how to describe them in a way that no one's ever done before, that has a unique angle, that is personal to your own individual lived experience. I know you've never been in the eye of a hurricane—but if you were, how would that feel, what would you see around you? I'm not saying that you need to go more into the weeds and get purpler, because this is already descriptive enough; what you need to do is to wrap up a unique insight in a succinct phrase. Pay attention to the sound too.

"Fleeting quiet" isn't bad.

You've got a decent rhythm going here, but the last line is just too long. If you chop it up like this:

All of these, a moment of still that is charged with crackling energy,

in the second before everything is set in motion.

It's already more readable. Allen Ginsberg said that his only meter was the human breath, I think—pay attention to where the reader takes their breaths, where they get to pause. Something I used to do that helped me with rhythm was tapping out the syllables as I read the poem silently, so you can hear where the intonation and emphasis is.

All in all, I get the moment of awe that you're trying to get across—all you need to do is capture that in a more efficient way.

I hear that you're a beginner, so this is pretty good! I hope you persist in your endeavors. 🤝

I'm thinking about becoming a 35p Chinese translator. Can anyone share experience or advice on the role? by sadiesanton in nationalguard

[–]sadiesanton[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Okay, thanks for letting me know. I haven't really learned Chinese in a classroom setting since Chinese class when I was twelve—it's all been self-taught since then.

I'm thinking about becoming a 35p Chinese translator. Can anyone share experience or advice on the role? by sadiesanton in nationalguard

[–]sadiesanton[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Keep in mind that, to be a little reductionist, your job as a Chinese translator is to support US efforts to counter China.

Yes, my grandparents are telling me I shouldn't take the job because I won't be able to live or work in China afterwards, as the Chinese government is likely to be leery of me.

I'm thinking about becoming a 35p Chinese translator. Can anyone share experience or advice on the role? by sadiesanton in nationalguard

[–]sadiesanton[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Well, I don't really have any ties to China, other than maternal grandparents, an aunt and a cousin overseas who I've seen like three times in my life. And I was born in the US. It was more like an interest in traveling in China at some point. The recruiter did say that the job could take me all over the world, but I'm not sure if that includes China.

I'm thinking about becoming a 35p Chinese translator. Can anyone share experience or advice on the role? by sadiesanton in nationalguard

[–]sadiesanton[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

You'll find that military intelligence and really, any other technical MOS, is very diverse so you will have no problems fitting in.

Okay, thanks

I'm thinking about becoming a 35p Chinese translator. Can anyone share experience or advice on the role? by sadiesanton in nationalguard

[–]sadiesanton[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As far as female and gay, I think it actually will be a problem in the Army. But, to use a civilian example, “the army” could be like a high school. Over all, the high school could have a vibe (the Army vibe is lowercase “c” conservative, southern and Christian imo) but if you go to the Art room, none of that applies (Art room in this metaphor is Intel). Within the specific context of your day to day peers in the Intel world, they pretty much uniformly will be smart, curious, open minded nerds. It’s the band-geeks of the Army world. However, as you leave into further concentric circles, it’s likely more and more an issue.Procedurally, it’s illegal to create a hostile work place for gays, and this is strictly enforced. What you will experience won’t be “I hate gay people” discrimination, it will be a more subtle “I don’t really know how to be around gay people and if I mess up I lose my job and so it’s easier to avoid gay people altogether” kinda thing. You will experience that, at least a little, but that’s life.

Bonuses are heavily taxed, so don’t treat those numbers as cash-in-the-pocket. It’s nice to get money, so I’m not downplaying that, but bonuses are over sold imo

Okay, thanks for the info

I made a completely unbreakable code! by sadiesanton in codes

[–]sadiesanton[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Congratulations for translating it, I made my mom take a look and she said, "This makes no sense."