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being Southern at Samwell probably gets lonely
I grew up the child of progressive Northern parents in the American South. In high school, I distanced myself from/protested the homophobic constitutional amendments and gun culture and Confederate flags and Christian supremacy all around me. But my image of the South’s complexity, and my understanding and respect for where I grew up even with all its flaws, has grown as I’ve lived in other countries and regions. I keep coming back to my home state. So naturally I’ve started thinking of how Bitty handles his white Southern identity.
We know most students at Samwell would never dream of teasing Bitty for being gay or for how he presents his gender. We know Bitty adores Samwell and is super secure in loving his Mama Bittle and making jokes about culture clashes. But I’m wondering if sometimes Bitty gets this wave of feeling really different from the people around him. There’s so much stereotyping of Southerners as dumb, and poor, and bigoted, of white Southerners as all completely racist (as way more racist than white Northerners). Bitty’s accent is not exactly prestigious, even though fandom and Bitty’s friends think it’s charming. And Bitty’s grown up around people who fit those stereotypes, has been locked into closets and misunderstood by those people! But not everybody he knows is like that, and some of those who are are still his family, you know?
Headcanons:
Bitty getting tired of how basic aspects of his family’s traditions and his high school’s culture seem baffling and weird to everybody else.
Bitty’s teammates thinking they’re chirping him good-naturedly, but saying something that actually kinda stings. / Bitty making a joke that falls totally flat and tweeting about it (has this happened in canon?).
Bitty learns Québécois history and bonds with Jack over being seen as the hicks of their respective countries. (Then he gets good enough at French and they play “Speak White” by Michèle Lalonde in one of his classes, and it suddenly hits him how he’s been watching his own language presentation in internship interviews.)
It turns out Bitty knows more about the Civil Rights Movement than Jack does, just from stories and state history lessons - but every now and then Bitty tells a story about his high school and Jack points out how something that seemed normal was actually pretty racist, or a manifestation of structural racism.
The day Bitty gets this unfamiliar rush of defensiveness when someone makes a joke about redneck Trump supporters–even though he would totally have said the same thing with friends back home! It’s weird! Bitty talks with his parents about it that week and it turns into a really good, nuanced conversation about politics.
It’s the bet that really gets me. How often do people bet on Jack’s hockey? How often on him losing? For that matter, on him losing it again, or the kind of drugs he’s on? This is so hopeful and wonderful, and I love Alicia so much in it. She’s vibrant and her own person, in what used to be her own space, and that shows even in how it’s set back from the rest of her family. This is how you write female secondary characters!
I wish you would write a fic where jack comes back from going to kiss bitty at graduation and his parents chirp him SO HARD bc his phone keeps goign off and he's all pleased and bashful about it and doesn't outright admit anything but it's SUPER CLEAR what happend
This is…. not quite what you wanted but it’s set at the same time and its similar. also its what popped into my head as i procrastinate my last paper so…
“Well, that one clearly just got laid,” you say to Ashlyn as the two of you finally get the chance to stand still and lean against the bar. You’re behind it and she’s in the little nook that servers hide in when they don’t want their tables to see them. She swivels her head to see who you are looking at.
“Which one?”
“Table 4. Dark suit, blue tie, looks just like his dad.”
Ashlyn looks. Then giggles. “You’re fucking right about that. Look at him!”
“So laid,” you agree. “Probably after the ceremony too. And good too. You don’t walk around with a smile like that unless you got right fu–”
“Excuse me?”
Your mouth snaps shut. Hard. Because this place isn’t particularly fancy–but it is the traditional college bar and it is graduation. Which means all the alums and parents are back and you probably should not be talking like this. It’s a classy day.
And it only gets worse as it turns because this place isn’t classy, but, goodness, this woman is. Reddish-blond hair perfectly styled in that long-bob that’s so in right now, red and white dress, fashionable belt, and blue eyes expertly enhanced by the slightest bit of brown eyeliner. Ugh. After only 4 hours of tending bar on graduation day, you are pretty sure you look like some sort of monster.
Also, she looks vaguely familiar. As if maybe you’ve seen her somewhere. Somewhere important?
Also, she is a paying customer who just overheard you gossiping about how one of the newly graduated college boys probably had sex within the past hour so…
Not a great moment for you, to be honest.
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