tf_talk | continued Thatfucker discussion

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continued Thatfucker discussion

Since we've been kicked off FFA for the week, please feel free to continue the anon discussion here. Apologies if this is a big flop - I've never made a DW community before!

The rules are vaguely the same as they are over on FFA. Please refrain from being too much of an asshole, making personal attacks, posting identifying information or engaging in transfail.

ETA: If there's information you'd like to see archived (journal/blog posts related to Andy, etc.), please dump it here and link to it from the main post for discussing.

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This isn't the only time he's gone overboard with the makeup.

http://andythanfiction.tumblr.com/post/48714163955/mother-just-decided-to-try-giving-me-haircut-do

AYRT

Oh, here I think he's using the classic "glue hair to your face" method! This one was mentioned in the discussions I had, and I tried it myself once. The consensus is that it takes a lot of practice, is extremely uncomfortable (you've got glue on your face!), is hard to avoid messing up when eating, is likely to need retouching if worn for more than a couple of hours, and gives the best results when mimicking an actual small beard (like some sort of goatee for example). Using it on the whole lower face like Andy seems to have done here would almost certainly look fake in face-to-face interaction unless you're really good with make-up (Andy does have years of cosplaying experience), and would be majorly uncomfortable!

What baffles me about that post is not the fake beard, which looks much better in my eyes than the one in the other post. It's the fact that his mom gave him a haircut which actually makes him look like a guy, and he's not happy with it! Between the conservative male haircut and his natural heavy eyebrows, he would easily pass as a guy even without the fake beard, instead of his usual ambiguous androgynous look. I know loads of trans men who would give anything to be so lucky! But no, Andy Blake prefers to look Speshul even if it makes him look androgynous, than to look like some common, average cis guy. Of course. Gah.

Andy frequently brags about how much of a "bishie" he is to his followers, so you may be on to something.

Part of me wonders if he doesn't do it specifically because it appeals to a large female segment of fandom, and a segment that tends to skew young besides.

That could be it, yes. A RL bishie is much more likely to work as a fangirl magnet than any average cute guy.

I guess what baffles me is that it's so at odds with his loud obsession for All Things Uber Manly, you know? "I'm the manliest man who ever manned - but eeww, I don't wanna *look* like a man!" How does that work??

It makes him SPESHUL.

He's a manly man who also likes CATS and isn't as threateningly muscled as Those Guys Who Spend All Their Time At The Gym. A pretty bishie boy is who is also Bad-Ass, and that makes him all the more Bad-Ass, because he's not a stereotype, you guys!

Short badass bishies with a bad attitude are my ultimate catnip in fiction. But Andy NEVER evoked that mental picture in me. If that's what he's going for, then he's failed big time.

Mr. Sensitive.

This is one of the things about Andy that bothers me most, because I see it all the goddamn time. An abuser rushing in to tell naive women who haven't been around men very much that they must fear all other men, but he's not like THEM. He's so DIFFERENT. Because he likes cats! Or some other thing that's not a bit unusual in men (like enjoying different female body types, or not being violent against women, or etc.)

And a certain demographic of girls, those who have not known very many boys and men well throughout their lives, and who buy the "straight boys are teh ebilz!" bs that's so prevalent on Tumblr, eat this kind of shit up with a spoon. If you're a straight girl, what are you supposed to do, after all? When you're constantly told all men are out to get you, that masculinity is inherently dangerous, and you're too sheltered to know otherwise, but you're still attracted to men, finding a man who seems to be so ~different~ from those brodude stereotypes must feel like finding a fucking unicorn.

And, of course, predators like Andy Blake use this to their advantage. Not only is he so special and different (actually he's different in that he's much more of a misogynist than most men), but you'll never find a man as sensitive and understanding as him. Every other man out there except for him, and maybe a couple of his approved male followers, are dangerous and cruel. He's the best you can ever do. It's a way to keep young women in the cages he forced them into.

It drives me absolutely up the wall.

+1 -- the haircut is very male, not lesbian or androgynous. He would pass easily, lack of beard could be seen as part latino with the dark hair. His usual haircuts that show off the hairline are more difficult to pull off.

Andy actually has some Latin (not sure if Latino though) ancestry, contrary to his claims of 100% Oirishness.

Funny you say that-when I saw that picture, I thought "He looks like some of the cute Hispanic guys in the Mission." (neighborhood here in San Francisco) No reason for him to glue on fake hair.

Interesting that he goes in for the fake Irish thing, although in the U.S. people do tend to fetishize that, so it's somewhat understandable. When I was in high school, it seemed like every other person talked up their Irish heritage, wore cladagh rings, etc. They usually did have some Irish heritage in addition to English, Scottish, Hungarian, Italian--but for some reason those were not as...exotic?...interesting? Not sure why.

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