I really don’t like that this is how Homestuck fans talk about racism, as a throw away joke or mention. Plus how is a black woman that is a fascist leader who owns slaves only “Vaguely” “Insensitive”

Karkat’s gender, HIC, and the Virgin Mary

Karkat says he really admires HIC because of her ability to keep shit together as a leader and I can’t help but think of what HIC represents for other characters

In the beta verse, Grandpa ran away from her, Nanna grew up resenting her, on the alpha verse Grandma English both resented her and ran away from her, while Pops June just sorta, stayed, just passively accepted the Crocker name and became heiress without any negative feelings being canonized. It really feels like out of everyone June is the most receptive of HIC because of how she represents femininty

HIC is hyper feminine and has the persona of Betty Crocker, a 50s housewife, the way that she haunts other people who struggle with femininity just seems representative of that as well, Roxy resents her, Nanna wanted to learn her tricks to take her down someday, Grandpa just straight up ran away from her*, and it just feels in line with their relationships with feminity, Jake being the most avoidant dreaming of being this hyper masculine fever dream and Jane trying to subvert feminity but never managing to do so despite her being really masculine, loving to wear mustaches, interest in hard boiled detectives, but still trapped by the limitations set by HIC’s brainwashing of her.

(*Also bcz ppl keep getting hung up on that I’m not saying Jake hates femininity I’m saying that Grandpa who is a Macho Explorer who plays masculine and is basically Jake’s idealized version of a man, he runs away from femininty bcz he doesn’t want to think about his gender, he doesn’t want to realize he’s not confortable as a manly man, he goes off to perform masculinity on Earth C and is shoved into masculine roles such as the husband on candy tl and the hero with incredible power by Aranea)

The Collide segment also has those girls that grew to resent feminity being the ones to battle against HIC

And that’s a general theme in Homestuck that LEADERSHIP IS FEMININE, Roxy is described as a great leader by her ability to stitch the team together and trying to be there for her friends, but also by Vriska taking the lead in the end while Karkat just bitterly fades into the role of just listening. June and Meenah are also leaders of their sessions, and June specially had this thing of really looking up to Vriska, similar to Karkat and HIC, of looking up to someone who was a victim of their society’s ideals of being a leader and whatnot.

And the relationship I wanna highlight is KARKAT, KANAYA AND HIC, because there are a lot of conections, the most obvious one being Karkat and Kanaya who are really close friends, but also how they subtly contrast each other. Karkat wants to be a masculine badass leader, Kanaya wants to bring back the troll species, they both do not accomplish it how they wanted. Karkat is not a leader by the end, he just listens to Vriska’s plan while bitterly on the back, Kanaya fails to protect the matriorb and only gets it back way later, their attempts at fulfilling their caste and gender expectations fail

And also it’s really telling how Karkat keeps having female role models (HIC and Kanaya, Vriska takes his leader position, he sucks up to Jade and Terezi melding with crushes) while the one male role models he could have (Kankri and Signless) he just denies their existence basically.

Another point is that Kanaya is the child of a virgin mother and comes back from the dead, she is a Jesus figure, not Karkat. 

And the relationship between HIC and Kanaya is also one based on their roles

Both want the Matriorb, both want to bring the troll species back, but both are unable to without Roxy. Kanaya and HIC both have this relationship of wanting to fulfill their porpoises of “mothers” for the whole species despite not having the ability to do so on their own.

And that just talks to homestuck’s theme of DESIRED ROLE VS REALIZED ROLE

Karkat wants to be a badass hero, but he is much happier when he is listening and doting after his friends, he is “the mom friend” while Kanaya admits that she is really bad at auspitism despite constantly being told to do that, Roxy and Vriska take the lead of their sessions despite Dirk wanting to control things on his session and Karkat attempting to be that. None of the characters fulfill their desired roles because it’s not for them. 

The only place where Karkat manages to be a leader is on the non canonical black hole on the Candy timeline, the tl where everything went wrong and everyone is unhappy, Jane fulfilled her role as HIC’s sucessor, Jake is in an unhappy hetero marriage, Dirk managed to make a big impact by literally dying, June got a rushed and shallow marriage, they all fulfilled their roles based straight and cis ideals, and they’re all unhappy.

(That’s a reason why I hate Com Kat, he’s clearly unhappy and married with a 19 yo that had a crush on him when he was 15, and ppl still worship as a badass warrior)

THE POINT IS, Karkat is transfem and constantly worshipping female figures in his life, showed at his unhappiest when he’s in a “masculine” role, and a lot of his traits are muddled with Kanaya’s, the mom friend, the one who listens, when Kanaya much like EVERY HOMESTUCK CHARACTER is happier when they DON’T HAVE TO FULFILL THEIR GENDER ROLES

Some Homestuck drawings. Tried to follow the prompt list for HStober, a troll, a kid, an OTP, a Dancestor and an Antagonist.

HIC being a symbol for stereotypical femininity, and of tradwife-ness, just sort of makes somethings pretty like, neat.

HIC raised Jake and Jane (pre-scratch), Jake fucked off, because he’s an old timey guy running away from femininity and his sexuality, by like overcompensating on his macho persona and putting blue ladies everywhere. While Jane was forced to stay and learn HIC’s abilities to win her on her own game, win femininity by subverting it, since y’know, she’s a trans butch lesbian. A fact that is canon.

HIC raised Jade and June, Jade fucked off and started to plot against her, until she straight up kills her. If we go by Femininity=>Motherhood, further expressed through the Space aspect, this is what kills Jade, her enforced role in motherhood and as a space player. 

And June just sorta of vibes with HIC for most of her life, she never leaves. And Dirk remarks how despite being raised by HIC she just sort of managed to be a pretty alright person. So I just sort of see her as being receptive of femininity, but ultimately was unable to even think about her gender identity.

Also this relates to other figures sort of, Vriska wants the approval of Alternian society as a whole, and from HIC/Meenah as well, trying to live up to femininity, and Karkat (That I hc as Bigender Transfem who goes by she/her and he/him Bisexual with a strong preference for men shut up I’m not projecting) also looks up to her.

So uh, yeah. Just to close this off on HIC=Femininity itself here’s this

The team that fought her on Collide.

Okay but I’ve talked about this on my transfem Karkat post, where Karkat looks up to HIC despite the oppressive force she represents, but HIC being an oppressive feminine force in general gives new context to things like this:

Look at the team that fights HIC! That’s a lot of transfems!

These like 5 transfems fighting the very concept of stereotypical femininity expressed trough the empress and 50′s housewife that is The Condescension (AKA Betty Crocker). All their struggles with motherhood, compulsory heterosexuality, and their transness. And the culmination of their stories is fighting Betty Crocker.

The culmination of their stories is fighting The 50′s Housewife. Like what’s up with that.