green slime in Homestuck is an obvious symbol of the patriarch.
everything on patriarchy hellplanet alternia is absolutely saturated with it, from the beds they sleep in (hmm..) to their bathroom appliances and the technology they use.
it’s the substance that typifies the the practice of ectobiology, an act intimately interconnected with fatherhood.
jade, who loses her father, sends a shirt with a green slime on it to john, who loses his grandmother and gets a father instead.
gamzee makara partakes in consuming green slime when his real father figure is absent (an act which could also be seen as a ‘drinking of the kool aid’ of sorts, initiating gamzee’s participation in the patriarchal clown caste that rules alternia).
mangrit is a ‘green slime’ that acts as a contrast to the blue slime of life and motherhood.
what’s really interesting is that beyond this blatant imagery, green - especially bright green of the sort that is associated with alternia and john’s green slime shirt - has always been an explicitly feminine-coded colour within homestuck. it’s the colour associated with the space aspect, and the colour of all the space players, and the colour of the cherub sex associated with the motherly protector. so where does the discrepency come from? how can one accurately distinguish between these polar opposite interpretations of the colour? is there a connection?
actually, yeah; we can pinpoint the moment bright green slime makes the transition from feminine code to patriarchal gunk.
uu: HER PuTRID HARLEQuIN SLIME WILL LEAK FROM HER WOuNDS AND SOAK HER uGLY YELLOW ROBE.
caliborn explicitly identifies the feminine blood of his feminine sister with the masculine nasty mayonnaise that pervades the world he comes to rule. why?
PAINTING MY WORDS IN HER BLOOD. AS A TOKEN OF MY RUTHLESS TRIUMPH.
because he deliberately appropriates the colour for his own use. the coat, the elves, the mansions that all come to be synonymous with his evil patriarchal influence are all painted with the blood of the dead female, as proof of the domination of Man.
what does this symbolise? I dunno. maybe it’s simple; maybe the green of the patriarchy really is just a token of victory over the feminine. an icon of the appropriation of the female form for male use; similar, perhaps, to the scarlet of red of the royal class of alternia. i dunno. i’m still thinking about it.