OK I'M HOME LET'S TALK. we're about to entire into the Seme Allyship Advanced Course.

• obviously not everything is always That Deep and having some faves who bottom doesn't mean anything special
• also obviously sometimes it's as simple as "i want to fuck them / see them get fucked, so they bottom"
• and of course most of the time, bottoming isn't necessarily "ooc," but they WAY it's done can be (exceptions being characters with established preferences!)
• BUT there is definitely a trend of people in fandom making all their faves bottom, of bottoming being seen as the Peak Vulnerability and Last Obstacle, of bottoming as "getting pampered," and generally much much more focus on the bottom.

why? "they want to fuck the character / see them get fucked" doesn't explain all of this. seriously, why is it that if someone wants to show favor towards a character, that character bottoms? if they say "i want my fav pampered," that means they want their fav to be fucked? and if it's really about pampering your fav, why do all the tops often end up with the same cookie-cutter dialogue, you know?

where is the top love, as you ask!!

i have a few theories, but i think maybe part of it is that, quite frankly, (some people don't wanna hear this but) fandom is made by a majority of women who have relationships with men and receive sexually in those relationships with men. it's probably hard to completely separate the idea of heterosexual male from men topping, and from seeing the bottom as the side needing more consideration. with this experience informing it, topping is not a complete preference in itself, rather it's something that's done to the bottom, who is (ideally) the real star of the show. the top becomes just a stand-in, whose actual personality doesn't matter either.

this might seem like reaching but seriously... the next time someone thinks "i want to spoil this character so he's going to bottom," or "i need to show that he trusts this other guy now so he's going to bottom," or something like "idgaf about this character so he can top," i hope they at least think for a few seconds about why they are making those connections. i have been begging people for years at this point to realize that you CAN spoil your fav by making them top too!

because is it not ALSO love to find the perfect bottom and bring them to your favorite character like a mother bird feeding her children? "this hole... i found it for YOU," i say to my faves!!! let them experience the joy of topping without losing your respect... love them for who they are!!