Do you think the – highly reactionary – responses to Jane and Roxy’s flaws being out of proportion with the much calmer responses to Jake and Dirk’s flaws is based in misogyny? Because looking through discourse, it seems that Jake stans in particular refuse to let anyone criticize the boys, whereas especially the Jane hate as of late has been centered on her “versus” Jake?

landofsomethingsomething:

Any time it comes to a female character being judged for her flaws you are going to see some level of misogyny. Conversely, any time you see for instance a gay man being judged for his flaws you are going to see some level of homophobia. It’s impossible for me to make any blanket statements about what sentiments come from where (and even if sentiments are coming from somewhere shitty, how much of that is internalized? How much of it is subconscious? How much of it is just unexamined repetition of an argument someone else made that the person repeating might not even realize originated with misogynist or homophobic roots?)

So, yeah. I see plenty of obvious bad faith discoursing in the fandom, sure, but the question of what antis are more vicious and why is really subjective. Depending on what circles you hang out in and what tags you browse and who you do or don’t have blocked on this egregious hell site, you’re going to have different experiences. I have no idea what the unfiltered fandom looks like anymore because I need to heavily curate my dash for my own damn sanity’s sake.

Like, by my own experiences, I would not call the common fandom reaction to Dirk Strider’s flaws “calm” by any measure or even the most loose definition of the word. From where I’m standing, the only character guaranteed to generate more unproductive discourse than Dirk is Vriska, lmao.

This is mostly how I would’ve tried to respond to you as well, anon. I’ll answer you in my own way but in fandom terms this is p much how I think about it.

the other day i saw someone claim that the fact that dirk “used the ar” with jake made him a bad friend because he was saying “jake wasnt worth the time” so, guys? answering machines are emotional abuse now

forgotten homestuck fact: Dirk didnt answer THE FIRST MESSAGE between Jake and the AR, immediately admitted to Jane he felt obligated to let AR run as long as possible, and then promptly went on to completely lose control of the session on every level imaginable and had all of Jake’s messages screened by the AR the entire time.

No, seriously. Even in the shower room when Dirk doesn’t answer, we see Jake’s text bubble. Dirk gets text bubbles every time he receives messages from characters during that entire section. Know who he never gets bubbles from again, fucking Jake, that’s right–and Hal even tells Jake “Dirk can’t hear you right now” just before Jake passes out after fighting the Brobot.

memelord69:

revolutionaryduelist:

oceanboydirk:

re: dirk in canon vs. fanon

have we ever, like. is dirk ever mean to anyone in canon? other than the breakup with jake, he never yells at anyone, ever. he’s wildly nice to roxy even when he’s pretty clearly in an uncomfortable situation or frustrated.

yeah, he’s pretty sarcastic, but i’m pretty solid that he doesn’t ever make fun of someone meanly, only ever as teasing or a joke (dirk, not the AR or bgd).

i mean, hell, he’s even vaguely friendly to caliborn, who would be pretty easy to hate.

im not going to go digging through canon for evidence, but. yeah. thoughts.

i did dig through the canon for evidence and yeah you’re right the absolute closest dirk ever comes to a mean word is saying Jake should believe in stuff more critically (which is true and Jake’s willful ignorance hurts Dirk PERSONALLY) and that Jane should be less skeptical (and we see how badly Jane’s skepticism hurts roxy) other than the time he breaks up with Jake

Dirk is literally, canonically probably the sweetest kid in the comic lmao

You raise a point, this is hilarious. He DOES yell at and insult the AR, but he also uses the AR as an avatar for his own self-loathing. The implications of that are pretty telling.

Dirk is just so… Dirk that it’s funny he’d be a strong contender for the most verbally considerate and sweet, at least to everyone but himself.

he also literally watches Hal mentally abuse and gaslight Jake which he notes he’s bitter about in their big pesterlog. And, you know, Hal does successfully use Dirk’s emotional insecurities against him like with the Roxy thing.

So the emotional violence there is not only self-directed but also kinda warranted imo. (i understand where Hal is coming from too even though Hal is a legit abuser to both Dirk and Jake.)

kidgecko:

revolutionaryduelist:

armsocks:

armsocks:

dirk is absolutely an annoying STEM major

john (MBA or something): hi

dirk: Your degree is pointless; your career will be obsolete in five years tops. You will never be able to do what I do. Have fun with your easy m

dirk’s, like, introductory description includes reference to him being a pop culture enthusiast and his main interests include philosophy and history , and his interest in “Stem” pretty much never shows its face in the comic outside of being the result of a handful of projects he worked on across his teenage years

It’s to the point that even Bro–who is the worst dirk possible–engages in art and makes comics and stuff far, far more than he ever engages in robotics. You’re thinking uncharitably of Jade or maybe Jake here, not Dirk. Or, you know, Caliborn who is the exact kind of annoying mra who would value “practical” skills over art so

nah

dirk is the person who wrote that reply

I’m a psychology major and media analyst who writes primarily about the ways stories affected me as a queer youth and informed my spirituality and worldview (including Homestuck among other things), and i’m pretty sure I literally couldn’t screw two things together if asked without hurting myself.

My main project right now is trying to make Homestuck accessible to incoming Hiveswap fans through the lens of spirituality and philosophy. Suffice it to say, I am not a STEM major. I can barely do basic math.

I care about Dirk as a character and as someone who relates to him and gets a lot out of queer mlm coming of age narratives, so like, dislike my opinion if you want but you could at least try to shut me down in a way that makes any sense. Dirk’s narrative is personal for me and I wish more people saw his character for the marvel it is, that’s all.

armsocks:

armsocks:

dirk is absolutely an annoying STEM major

john (MBA or something): hi

dirk: Your degree is pointless; your career will be obsolete in five years tops. You will never be able to do what I do. Have fun with your easy m

dirk’s, like, introductory description includes reference to him being a pop culture enthusiast and his main interests include philosophy and history , and his interest in “Stem” pretty much never shows its face in the comic outside of being the result of a handful of projects he worked on across his teenage years

It’s to the point that even Bro–who is the worst dirk possible–engages in art and makes comics and stuff far, far more than he ever engages in robotics. You’re thinking uncharitably of Jade or maybe Jake here, not Dirk. Or, you know, Caliborn who is the exact kind of annoying mra who would value “practical” skills over art so

nah