Okay, I've been going back and forth for a while on doing this thread cause I don't want to upset anyone, but here it is #TwitterofTime and #Dragonsworn.
Wheel of Time Queer headcanons that really bug me, a thread: 1/

A note before I start, I really don't mean this to poo poo on anyone's headcanons or interpretations. I am definitely no saying these aren't valid! Thy all just kind of bug me for one reason or another.
2/

First up, probably the most popular and the one that bugs me the most: Mat Cauthon as bi or pan.
So, this is a very, very common headcanon not just in the WoT community and with Mat, but for any character like him. The Dean Winchester types. The bad boy with a heart of gold 3/

that acts like a player but maybe really cares and is a total womanizer. Almost every character like that in media ends up with bi slapped on them, and it drives me up a flaming wall.
This is something that, to me, very clearly is the result of biphobic stereotypes. It leans 4/

into the idea that bi and pan folk are always horny or super promiscuous. And when the explanation for the headcanon includes some variation of "well, I just don't see women being enough for him" it is obnoxiously biphobic. It's just a rework of the "bi people are greedy" 5/

stereotype, and that's really awful.
I think this one gets to me so much because it's personal. I'm a bi person, but I'm also ace spectrum. So this stereotype bothers me a lot in general.And, given that for a lot of people, this seems to be their primary queer headcanon for 6/

WoT, it seems like yelling "this is the way to be bi!" to the world.
(To almost directly contradict myself, I do actually see a lot of myself in Mat. I personally headcanon him as ace-spec too, and that's a convo we can get into another time.)
I'm not opposed to bi Mat. I 7/

just wish it felt like more thought was put into it. And that it wasn't the only one so many people have.
8/

Second, trans Min. Or agender or non-binary Min.
This is for very similar reasons to Mat, but it's not one I can speak to nearly as much simply because it's not really a community I'm part of. But when this is the only headcanon for characters out of the binary people have, 9/

it seems to me like they're just pulling from the stereotype. "A woman not conforming to gender norms! What is she's... not a woman?"
(Faile as trans/nb is also here to a smaller extent, but I also don't see that as much.)
Again, I'm not trans. I don't really get a say in 10/

whether this is bad or not, and I don't think it's meant to be mean or anything, but I see it and just kinda frown.
11/

Third, Avi (or most of the Maidens) as lesbians.
Okay, some of them are (Bain and Chiad). But this headcanon just has the energy of "well, if she plays field hockey, she's gotta be gay, right?" 12/

Fourth, in a very similar vein, Aiel as bi/pan or polyamorous. (This, especially if it's something like "basically all the Aiel are poly" or "any of the Aiel could be pan.")
Again, this is tricky because some of them undoubtedly are. But when it's generalized like that, it 13/

feels like...
I have no idea how to word this one. I know what I mean, but can't quite articulate.
The Aiel (and many characters like them... the Fremen, the sand people in Star Wars, etc) are meant to act as an "other" to the otherwise familiar (primarily Western-based) 14/

civilization we've been following. They are the "savages." And often, something that goes with this is sexual (and gender and racial and a bunch of other things) freedoms or practices outside of the norm for the society we are used to for the world (which frequently mirrors 15/

the norm of the real western/global north).
This is something RJ already slid into. The Aiel have multiple wives. They're comfortable in nudity.
And sometimes this is to say "this is good; we should be more like this." Which is fine. But it's still inherently othering. So if 16/

your main queer headcanons are all projecting them onto the Aiel, it feels very much that you are saying it's other than.
This also goes for the Tinkers, but is honestly probably worse because of stereotypes we have for Roma people. 17/

Fifth, Verin, Alviarin, or just about and white or brown sister as ace (or aro).
This is similar to the first couple. It's a stereotype that people on the ace spectrum are all cold and logical or more concerned with studying or reading than sex or that kind of thing. Which... 18/

are exactly the traits we get for the white and brown ajahs respectfully. And, again, given these are generally the only ace/aro headcanons you see (if you see any at all), it feels pretty easy to see where it's coming from. 19/

The tl;dr for basically all of these are that they seems a little lazy and based solely on harmful stereotyping. the horny guy is bi, the girl in pants is nb, the sporty ladies are lesbians, the non-western people are poly, and the nerdy people are ace... And there certainly 20/

are people like that in those categories. But that's not all.
There are ace-spec bi's. There are nb folk that love feminine thing. There are ace folk that are passionate and stupid af.
(It's me; I'm ace folk.)
Again, I don't mean to shut down anyones interpretations of the 21/

books and the characters. But if one of these are your *only* queer headcanons for WoT... I dunno, maybe consider why that is?
22/22

smh. There are so many typos in this thread. I'm very sorry to anyone that's going to make this hard to read!