Pride Month Celebration Week Day 6: Santana Lopez

Girls, Girls, Girls

THE MARVELS (2023) dir. Nia DaCosta

madrid n2

@taylorswift “they don't know how much i miss her... but she's looking at you” queen?

my new directions sexuality (and gender) headcanons (plus a few reasons why) - part two; the first generation (in seasons 1-3)

part one can be found here:

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my new directions sexuality (and gender) headcanons (plus a few reasons why) - part one; the first generation (in seasons 1-3)

1. rachel berry - bisexual - she basically admires quinn - calls quinn pretty like 90% of the time - lea michele herself ships both faber

9. mercedes jones - pansexual

- she wore a heart necklace with the colours of the pan flag in 3x13 (heart)

- stared at santana's boobs while singing “the boy is mine”

- had hot girls wearing bikinis in her musical fantasies (as seen in “bust your windows”)???

- “finn, you look handsome, quinn you look hot” 2x20 (prom queen)

10. brittany pierce - bisexual (canon) & genderfluid

- i don't really have an explanation lmao 😭😭

11. tina cohen-chang - bisexual & non-binary

- don't really have an explanation for the nb one tbh

- tike is bi4bi because i said so

- when making out with mike in 2x06 (never been kissed), she moaned beiste's name 😭

- they also use they/she pronouns because i said so

- i think she complimented quinn's (i think) looks before i can't remember when though (she said something about her bone structure)

-also stared happily (with quinn as stated in part one) when santana and mercedes were shaking ass

- and no straight person dresses goth lmfao

12. mike chang - bisexual

- don't really have an explanation except i'm 99% sure he and matt dated in season one

13. matt rutherford - bisexual

- same as mike, i'm 99% sure they both dated in season one

14. sugar motta - lesbian

- okay first of all she's brittana's child. so she's automatically NOT straight

- she also hates men (i can tell)

- look at the lesbian flag! it fits her :)

15. rory flanagan - gay

- just look at his outfits 😭

- was literally pining after finn and sam it's so obvious

- whatever happened between him and sugar in 3x13 (heart) was all platonic because i said so

16. joe hart - asexual

- i don't really have an explanation for this tbh

17. artie abrams - bisexual

- he literally said sam turned him on in 3x08 (hold on to sixteen)

- literally said david martinez's smile is cute like sir??? okay...

- because kevin said so

part 3 consisting of s4-5 characters 😍🫶 (also i couldn't add anymore pics 😭)

part 3!

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my new directions sexuality (and gender) headcanons (plus a few reasons why) - part three; the second generation (in seasons 4-5)

part 1 & 2 here! 1. rachel berry - bisexual - she basically admires quinn - calls quinn pretty like 90% of the time - lea michele hersel

@taylorswift pls post an ass pic for the warsaw post ty 😽😽

santana lopez has adhd (part 1)

^the adhd lesbian flag^

(*disclaimer: i have adhd myself and work in education/educational psychology, which is the basis of this post in which i get wayyyyy too analytical about a fictional character; however, i'm not a psychiatrist or doctor and am not qualified to diagnose real people with adhd or anything else ... seriously, our only representation is cis white boys whose adhd is an explanation for them being the class clown and treated as a joke so please don't get salty at me for claiming a fictional character that isn't a cis white boy as part of the adhd gang)

(credit to @dojasrivera on twitter for making the og adhd!santana thread; i unfortunately wasn't able to see it as i only found out about it after their original twitter account got suspended but there may be some overlap between their thread and this post)

this ended up being really long and tumblr cut me off so there is going to be a part 2

impulsiveness - let's get this one out of the way first since this is obviously really central to santana's character; she has a tendency to just kind of say whatever she thinks in the moment without thinking about the consequence and it often gets her into trouble.  she also just does random shit like try to get into a physical altercation with lauren zizes who is in the wrestling team, and later move into kurt and rachel's apartment completely out of the blue and go through their stuff for some bizarre reason (which is funny in a tv context but also like ... santana wtf don't go through their stuff).

difficulty initiating and maintaining friendships - santana has maybe 2 secure close friendships throughout the series (brittany and mercedes) and even then there are some complications; brittany because they're in love with each other, and even mercedes competed with santana over puck (ew) but that was resolved by the end of the episode.  all of santana's other female friendships (except tina but they're not really all that close and even they have a one-sided feud in season 4 where surprisingly santana is the unbothered one) appear to be sources of stress and anxiety for her because they revolve around competing (see her storyline with rachel from 5x09-5x13).  it's also established that santana is close friends with quinn throughout the series (even if they have a tendency to compete with each other) but santana says in 5x10 that quinn doesn't live too far away from her and yet she never makes the effort to see her, even though they ended their senior year relatively amicably.  she's way more forgiving of other people than she's given credit for, but she just craves acceptance and friendship from this bunch of misfits so much and is really insecure about whether or not she has it.

rejection sensitive dysphoria - this could literally describe like 90% of her interactions with people (mostly people that aren't brittany).  the entire pezberry feud is essentially santana experiencing rsd around her friendship (or lack thereof) with rachel and then doubling down on rachel's expectations of her to save face.  another example is in 2x20 when kurt wins prom queen and santana's immediate first thought is "everyone hates me".  this post from themostrandomfandom suggests that santana has an anxious attachment type.  even in some of her interactions with brittany, she's anxious about their relationship and needs reassurance ("you didn't say you love me back" in 2x18, "are we dating or what" in 3x04).

disorganisation - santana's bedroom (see 2x15 and 4x04) and locker (see the scene in 3x22 with her mom) are both literal disaster zones, and according to brittany, her car would qualify her to be on "whoreders" (honestly same)

difficulty with time management (chronic lateness) - "i like to make an entrance" aka she lost track of time and knew she was going to be late so she planned it (credit: @smolbrittana on instagram)

emotional reactivity and difficulty with emotional regulation - santana has very visceral reactions to all emotions, positive and negative (see this post by themostrandomfandom) (see this post by drshebloggo); she's very easily affected by external stimuli (e.g. the scene in 1x03 when she gets her tanning privileges revoked).  she feels her emotions really intensely and it takes her a long time to calm down.  she has rage (and of course i'm obligated to include this awesome compilation by literallylebanese).  in the hurt locker scene (2x15), santana articulates really well that she has so many big feelings that she doesn't know what to do with so the only thing she can do about them is lash out at other people. it's also worth noting that santana is extremely defensive and reactive in her social interactions with others; she's very rarely the one to "shoot first" (for lack of a better term) and a lot of her lashing out against her peers (i.e. getting revenge on finn/quinn in 2x12, her interactions with rory in 3x04/3x06, most of her interactions with rachel in 5x09-5x12, her monologue to kurt in 6x03) are in response to perceived wrongdoing/criticism/rejection (i'm not justifying these but context and motivation matters). she also has really visceral reactions to positive emotions; her whole face just instantly lights up when brittany smiles at her or touches her or someone compliments her.

poor financial management skills - homegirl literally blew half of her college fund on post-breakup retail therapy (maribel lopez seriously i love you but why would you just hand this child a cheque if you knew she was getting a scholarship)

impulsiveness around romantic relationships - u-haul lesbian jokes aside, santana moves very fast with dani, calling dani her girlfriend within like 5 seconds of meeting her, it's unclear when she and dani officially break up (my headcanon is that things went somewhat sour after dani voted to kick santana and rachel out of pamela lansbury, especially based on what we know about santana and her feelings of anxiety around real and/or perceived rejection, but i guess we'll never know). it's possible that dani may have been a hyperfixation.

poor adult interactions/distrust in authority - homegirl has this in spades; her abuela literally threatens to beat her up with a chair and tried to sell her once, and sue mistreats all the cheerleaders on a regular basis. even will schuester who she says she likes kicks her out of glee club, refuses to defend her and pushes for her to get suspended after the finn incident (as does shelby corcoran), and shames her for reporting his subpar teaching, so that's educational trauma on top of that and she has a tendency to challenge them, mr schuester especially.

compulsive fidgeting - often has a nail file or one of brittany's funky pens, also often fidgets with her hands when she's nervous - mostly around her britt-britt (see also)

extroverted introvert - santana is simultaneously brash and outspoken while also being bashful and socially awkward (see her interactions in 5x02 with dani)

(part 2)

Reasons why Rachel Berry is bisexual and in love with Quinn Fabray:

She wore a sweater with the colors of the bi flag while singing about getting the attention from both boys and girls. Take me or Leave me is a song from the musical Rent performed by a bisexual female character (it’s a duet with a lesbian and a bi woman, but Rachel performed the part of the bi character)

Even though at first her admiration for Quinn was platonic in a “I wanna look like you” kind of way, it evolved into something more. No straight girl talks that amount of times about how pretty and beautiful other girls are. Rachel literally says Quinn is the prettiest girl she’s ever met and there isn’t a single ounce of jealousy in her tone. Rachel is definitely attracted to Quinn and often looks like she’s pining after her

She asked Finn what it was like to kiss another girl (Quinn)

Even though Rachel has every reason to hate Quinn she never hated her. She even gave her panties to jbi to not divulge Quinn’s pregnancy and she did this for Quinn: Quinn is the one who would lose her reputation, her parents, her popularity and her spot on the Cheerios. Quinn is the one who would be hurted the most if the truth came out, not Finn. Rachel did this to protect her. During the first seasons, we often see Rachel trying to support/help Quinn (another example is when Rachel tries to reach out to Quinn when she was a skank)

Was Rachel in love with Finn ? Yes, he was her first love, but around mid season two and the beginning of season three she started to develop feelings for Quinn too

Rachel seems often sad and defeated when Quinn dates men

She suggested to Finn to get Quinn a gardenia for the prom: the gardenia means secret love, of all the flowers that exist in this world Rachel specifically picks the gardenia. This can’t be a coincidence

The way she looks at Quinn, ma’am just say you’re in love with her and go

In this scene from the pilot she touches Tina’s boobs

She has sexual chemistry with every woman she interacts with, especially with Quinn during the first seasons and Santana during seasons 4-5. Her duets with Santana are often emotionally charged and full of chemistry: in “so emotional” it’s almost like they’re singing to each other and there’s a heavy romantic subtext, in “every breath you take” pezberry look like two exes who had a rough break up, but they still aren’t over each other. This song can be interpreted as “i’m obsessed with you so I’m gonna watch you every step you take” or “I’m so in love with you I always wanna be close to you”. Both keys of reading are valid

She went through Santana’s panty drawer, I don’t need to say more

She’s constantly teased by Santana and other characters about her sexuality, it’s curious that she never denies being gay. It often seems like the show is dropping hints about her attraction to girls

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