My New Directions Sexuality (and Gender) Headcanons (plus A Few Reasons Why) - Part One; The First Generation

time to talk about this insta post

(because i have time on my hands and i hate myself)

So I've seen a few people react to this post and wanted to add my thoughts as someone who identifies as part of the LGBTQ+ community (i'm a nonbinary ace lesbian).

I realise the person who made the insta post is probably very young but they're also a cishet person talking about queer stories and queer experiences in a somewhat insensitive way and I wanted to add my two cents as someone who joined this fandom as a fifteen-year-old and at 29 is now a fandom "elder".

firstly, as the person who made the post is cishet, it's not their place to dictate what is and isn't "good" trans representation. it's also not their place to dictate whether or not they are "a transphobic". when discussing issues around trans representation, if you aren't a part of that community, you should sit back and listen to trans people (and you might learn something so you don't look so ignorant)

it's also super weird to say sheldon bieste shouldn't be trans because "they could have just focused on unique instead". you can have more than one trans character!!! ALL the characters could be trans if you want!

i can't believe i even need to say this but ... gay and bi trans men exist. non-heterosexual trans people of all genders exist.

"i know lots of people ship them and i'm not trying to cancel your opinions..." and yet here you are, trying and failing to convince people not to ship them.

listen friend - crackships exist. shippers gonna ship. sometimes people just don't like the canon ships and that's ok.

"Klaine may have some problems but it doesn't mean there is a need to ship them with another guy" - has it occurred to you that the people who ship Kurtbastian and Seblaine don't like Klaine?

*the next point is about Kurt in Laryngitis and I don't really have anything to say about it

this is the one that I sort of agree with but I didn't like Dani (she gave me Arielle Scarcella fan vibes and was probably a TERF) so I'm biased. at the risk of sounding like one of those people who defends their fave even when they're being kind of dickbags ... the biphobia started with Dani/Santana wanting to "impress" Dani who is (a) maybe the first out lesbian she's ever met and (b) openly biphobic. I also headcanon Santana as having ADHD and think Dani was kind of a hyperfixation of hers

...if quinn not into girls why dianna play her so gay?

"i always wondered what it would be like to be with a woman" is a very fruity thing for a straight person to say let's be real

here's a fun idea though: how about let's not just assume that everyone is straight?

(again, the above image was posted by a cis straight person)

😬

honestly this section to me feels like one big huge lump of text that my audhd brain is not absorbing in the way i want it to soooooo...

ok i'm gonna try here...

"i don't get why santana tries to get brittany while she is dating artie" ummmm because she has a crush on brittany ... what, is she supposed to just turn off her feelings just because brittany's dating someone else? she's a 16 year old child homie, give her a break jfc...

(obviously she didn't go about her feelings towards brittany in s2 or s4 in the best way but she was also young at the time and not great at communicating but i think it's important to recognise that she did get better as the series went on and brittana grew stronger as a couple in the long run)

as for "santana doesn't recognise brittany as bi" ... santana literally said in her proposal to brittany that doing it in front of the glee club would "upset all the single guys and gals" so obviously she is aware that brittany is attracted to people of different genders and openly acknowledges it.

i genuinely don't know what to say about this... i'm more of a casual klaine enjoyer so we're not at the level of deep philosophical analysis yet but if anyone wants to take this one (looking at you, scout) be my guest.

"i don't understand the hate towards klaine in s4 as a couple" ... i mean they weren't really a couple because they were broken up for most of season 4

blaine has really grown on me recently but "i needed you and you weren't there" wasn't much of an apology

the OP of the post has also said some sketchy things about race to a twitter mutual of mine, i.e. saying mercedes is racist against white people, which ......

so ... in summary

headcanons exist. webster defines headcanon as "something that a fan imagines to be true about a character even though no information supporting that belief is spelled out in the text"

while we live in a cisheteronormative society, we should refrain from assuming everyone is cis and/or straight.

it's okay for fans to prefer a crack couple over a canon couple (as long as they tag appropriately).

if you're a cishet person in a queer space, you need to approach queer stories with care and respect, and sometimes that involves not talking when you don't have experience with something

reverse racism doesn't exist

eat the rich and fuck the patriarchy

the girlies but its the barbie meme

+ bonus patreon version

THE MARVELS (2023) dir. Nia DaCosta

inspired by 90s Barbie art!

A 'lil extra addition to this piece that I doodled because I could not get that lesbian dress out of my mind and how gay it was of ms. Fabray to wear it 💅

just a reminder.... she had cheerios dancing all around her in bikini when singing bust your windows

she was sooo wolverine coded

THIS!!!

Santana Lopez in the early seasons: a case study in compulsory heterosexuality, part 1 - season 1

Once upon a time I decided to take a deep-dive into Santana’s relationship with her sexuality in the early seasons and specifically her sexual and/or romantic relationships with men. Today is the day we finally do that, or at least the first half of it by covering season 1. Thank you to anon from the other day a few weeks months back for the final push and for putting into words a lot of what has been living in my mind rent-free for ages.

Before we really begin, I want to establish a few things. First, like Anon said, all of what I’m going to detail is really just a happy accident as Santana wasn’t actually written to be a lesbian and therefore not one struggling with comphet in season 1. We can acknowledge that authorial intent, or rather the lack thereof, but still find meaning in how the show actually turned out and how it reads in retrospect, now that we know that Santana is a lesbian. I think this is important to note because my goal with these two posts isn’t to argue that it’s always been that deep; far be it from me to give Glee too much credit. No, I’m simply arguing that, intended or not, a comphet reading still exists and makes Santana’s character all the more fascinating in the context of her later journey and characterization. Aka we’re going to read into things but hey, if the things present themselves in such a fitting way then why not.

Second, let’s define what comphet even is before we go any further. So compulsory heterosexuality is what it says on the tin and usually refers to lesbian women who, because of outside pressure or internalized homophobia, feel like they have to conform to heteronormative standards and be attracted to and be with men. It’s often associated with the erasure of lesbianism and female desire, as outlined in Adrienne Rich’s essay who popularized the term in the 80s. I don’t want to recite a whole wikipedia page here so going to link it here and proceed with the definition from above. Alternatively, see the Equality Archive for more of an overview. It’s something many lesbians struggle with to differing degrees, whether that includes lying to themselves as well or just forcing themselves to be with men even though they know they’re not attracted to them due to heteronormative expectations and a fear of being perceived differently. It’s often the explanation as to why a lesbian woman has been with men in the past and yet identifies as a lesbian. As an aside though, lesbians don’t owe anyone an explanation for anything and can do whatever they like 😊 But the concept of comphet can help explain these tendencies and make sense of one’s own identity.

Okay, with that out of the way, I’ll be exploring through the course of two posts how this concept of comphet relates to Santana and her relationships with men as portrayed in seasons 1 and 2. This first post is going to be divided into two main portions, her relationships with Puck and Finn in season 1. Since Santana isn’t a main character in season 1 and just serves a purpose in others’ stories, most of her stuff does relate to the two boys and it’s through those relationships that we get a glimpse at her character.

This is an important thing to note about Santana’s beginnings as a character and therefore her season 1 story: that it’s not actually about her. What I mean is that she starts out as a background character who, even as she starts getting less generic lines, is still ultimately there as a supporting character to main players. She starts getting actual plotlines in the second half of the season but they’re still not about building her own character; they’re about stirring the pot for the main cast, so the story she does get makes sense from that perspective but also serves the point I’m trying to make about comphet. I’d also just like to acknowledge that it might sound counterintuitive to center a discussion about a lesbian around her relationships with men but that is exactly what comphet is, at the end of the day, so I figured the way to combat it would be through deconstructing it.

And now, without further ado!

Puck - the safety net and mutual use

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