ok so i think barthes' framework does have a critique utility (for example in the inverse case, such as colopale not calling mizuki a trans girl) and his analysis of sarrasine is way longer (in S/Z) but i've always thought starting this essay off with this was really funny
👁️🍄🪸
SHUT THE FUCK UP, HOLY SHIT IT'S REAL
the essay deadass starts with "it is unknowable through what lens and mentality daisuke operated when he declared that bridget was a girl"
i am going to Throw Up
Ada Basilisk, Haunted Doll VTuber
I'll be honest, I've never really felt the same way about Death of the Author after learning its origins (Barthes was angry over a Balzac story about a chaser, written over a century prior, for referring to a character as a woman instead of a femboy no I'm not making this up)
