#and then you click on the comments and it's just. racism

[cinephobia]

I didn't realize the dandadan fandom was so racist lmao we really need to kill a bunch of people with guns

[slyandthefamilybook]

so this is something that's been on my mind for a while. I wish I could make a big magnum opus post on it but I don't have the energy

I've noticed in my travels that antisemitism seems to be one of the only forms of bigotry that's not self-evidently wrong. People may think they think it is, but I don't think they do. Every time antisemitism comes up as a topic, I see Jews sharing posts with twin explanations: one on why something is antisemitic, and one on why that's a bad thing

I've seen this a lot, and have fallen into it myself, although recently I've been trying to stop. On a post about Bibi changing his last name to "sound more indigenous": "Imagine if someone said this about Black people". On a post blaming Jews for what Israel does: "Imagine if someone said this about Chinese people". On a post accusing Jews of owning too many industries: "Imagine if someone said this about Asian people".

There was a post that went around claiming the IDF harvested the organs of Palestinians with very little evidence. (There are some great posts debunking that but that's not what this post is about.) I remember looking through the comments and one of them stuck out to me. I can't remember the wording exactly, but it went something like: "Israel heard about blood libel and thought why don't we just do that?". Ignoring the fact that blood libel is about the accuser, not the accused, this comment played over and over in my head. I thought about it as I went to sleep that night. Here was a person admitting that the thing they were saying has a strong resemblance to blood libel, but saying it anyway. It struck me that the underlying thought here was "it's not blood libel if it's true".

Once I realized that, I was stunned. I suddenly heard right-wingers in my head saying "it's not racist, it's just a fact that on average Black people have a lower I.Q.". And suddenly everything clicked into place. I know it might seem like an elementary idea, but it genuinely had never occurred to me

In the eyes of bigots, racism protects power. Antisemitism protects truth.

I've often said that all conspiracy theories eventually lead back to the Jews, and this newfound realization fit in nicely. A popular neo-Nazi slogan I've seen recently is "the goyim know". This idea that Jews have something to hide has saturated the political spectrum

Antisemitism is itself a conspiracy theory.

I realize that makes it sound like I don't think antisemitism is real. That's not what I'm saying, it absolutely is. But the way people talk about it is unlike how they talk about any other form of racism. The Jews are a shadowy cabal, who meet in secret to deplatform people who dare speak out against them. This is something we see on the right and the left, from Kanye accusing the Jews of destroying his career, to leftists accusing the "Zionists" of controlling social media.

Spouting antisemitism now becomes a moral good, a political necessity. It's the most important thing in the fight for truth

I understood then, why people on the left are so comfortable calling out accusations of antisemitism as "frivolous", "unserious", "over-used". How they think people are using antisemitism to silence them. You can't just say something is antisemitic and walk away. It won't stick. You also have to sit there on your computer for the next 2 hours, looking up sources to debunk their claims. You have to appeal to the truth. With any other form of bigotry, it's understood by leftists that whatever the facts may be, they don't excuse racism. The number of Black Americans who commit crimes doesn't justify saying Black people are all criminals. The number of First Nations people who own casinos doesn't justify playing off that stereotype. But when it comes to the Jews, it's open season. You can say anything you like about the Jews, as long as you think it's true. Being told that it's antisemitic isn't enough.

This is a great example of just that. "Yes it's antisemitic, but it's also true." The accusation of antisemitism becomes an accusation against the truth. So when it comes to people who really believe in what they're saying, it all just bounces off. This is why people never seem to learn. They hop from conspiracy theory to conspiracy theory. As long as someone assures them it's all true, the bigotry doesn't really factor. They apologize not when confronted with their own racism, but when confronted with the facts.

In this way, antisemitism has become baked into society, especially Christian societies. Because why wouldn't it? Yes, the Jew is greedy, yes the Jew is sneaky, yes the Jew is bloodthirsty. But the Jew is above all a liar. They lie about their names, their culture, their history, their victories, their defeats

I wish I knew how to end this post. Some sort of call to action, some idea of how to fix this going forward. But I have no idea. I suspect if I did, we might not all be quite where we are right now

[creatingblackcharacters]

Question 6 anon here, obvs u rlly don't have to but if u wanna argue w/ my comment pls do argue, if I'm full of shit I wanna hear it 👍 This question has been driving me up the wall for years I just want to know why ppl all seem to agree fandom racism is bad and agrees with all the arguments and yet everything's still so racist and would appreciate different perspectives

I just think that the idea you have, that the people who are racist and aren't don't hang in the same circles, is just fundamentally not true.

Like sure, Trumpers might not click on my blog to learn about designing Black characters lol. But a good majority of the antiblackness I've seen on this website has come from people who swear they're liberal or progressive or fight for some cause for something that they deem important... And then just don't apply that grace and logic to Black people. So you'll see people saying intelligent things... and hate negroes 🤣. And then you'll see those people being reblogged en masse by people who agree with their good takes... And maybe don't know about the antiblackness they were just spewing. Not that you can tell who does and doesn't, out of the tens of thousands.

So yes, y'all do hang in the same circles. Yes, the people who need this page very much are also people around you. We have to stop acting like they aren't. I have mutuals who reblog people that I won't follow, simply because I've seen those people keke-ing it up with antiblack, whitewashing bloggers. Even the distant connection there is enough for me to be like "nah, unfortunately I can't kick it with you", even though we're in the same fandoms and such.

Essentially, the call is more often coming from inside the house, and the unwillingness to approach it from within because "oh I'M not racist" is preventing it being answered. Every antiblack sentiment you see in fandom isn't gonna look like an overt slur. It's gonna be in the way people perceive and treat Black characters versus others, in the way they treat Black character design, the way they allow others to slide when they are racist because "their art is cool". That tolerance I've been talking about? That's where you see the line for people, and it's so much closer than folks think.

[the-microphone-explodes]

So recently this Tweet went viral on Twitter, which is generally stating something that is rather common that I have also noticed on the app. (I will say that I do believe antisemitism and anti-black racism to also be extremely normalized as well, perhaps to an even greater extent).

That being said this was the general response (found in the quote retweet and the comments) to the above tweet:

I wanted to put this together and show it to others on here because it seems that it is strongly indicative of how hated Indian people are in progressive spaces. And before someone comes after me to say this is largely online, I will state that this rhetoric is eerily similar to the discrimination I faced growing up as Indian and that I continue to face. Additionally, people online are people in real life, they carry this rhetoric in the real world too and Indian people exist online too, we see how people dislike us.

To dissect and debunk all the sentiments in the tweets above would take an immense amount of time and energy that I do not have. Even archiving and collecting these tweets caused me to fall into a spiral of stress and tension. You don't have to go through all of it, much of what is expressed is vile, but I am trying to point out something. And it's that racism against Indians has become normalized, perhaps even encouraged, obviously in right-wing spaces but in progressive and liberal-left wing spaces as well. If you click on the accounts of many of these people, you can see them advocating against other forms of racism, homophobia, transphobia, anti-Palestinianism etc. These are progressives, not your run-of-the-mill conservative bigots. Hostility is growing against Indians, out in the open, and it seems that not many are willing to combat or acknowledge it.

The tactics are the same of course, to take a vocal minority of a group of people and paint the vast majority as the same, effectively portraying the group as if it has monolithic ideas. This is obviously a ridiculous thing to do, but even more so when one realizes that India is home to 1.4 billion people, not counting Indians living in other countries. These are all individuals who hold their own complex ideologies and beliefs, it is not possible to condense them down to one stereotype.

Am I denying that Indian people have our own issues and bigotry (to say the least) surrounding anti-Black racism, misogyny, islamophobia, casteism etc. Absolutely not! I have spent much of my life trying to unpack these sentiments drilled into me from a young age, and I have tried to help my peers do too. I have also spent time in real world activism combating such issues, because it is the only way forward to a more equal society.

But just because our society has prejudice does not mean we should be subjected to such bigotry from other progressives or have the discrimination we face not be taken seriously. Even the worst among us does not deserve to have racist sentiments spewed against them because bigotry is wrong, point blank. We don't deserve to be called rapists, to be accused of all being racists, and say that racism against us is "self-inflicted". Indians do not deserve that, we just don't.

[implausiblyjosh]

RIP Cohost

Cohost is shutting down because... well, of course it is. Cohost shutting down is the most "writing on the wall" shit for the last several months. The wealthy friend/funder ghosted them at one point in the last 12 months. Despite Anti-Software Software Club saying they were a "not-for-profit software company", they were just a regular LLC paying themselves near 100k/yr for their four FTEs. When they got new funding, after being ghosted, a stipulation of that funding was for them to be consistent in posting public financial updates, which they missed almost immediately. I cannot believe it lasted this long.

That they're still saying that "eggbux", the tipping and support features, fell through because of Stripe policy changes, something that seemingly did not happen, is wild. Can't even be honest at the end. Like... Cohost's early ideas started as a Patreon alternative. They've been working on "eggbux" as a concept basically since inception of Cohost. But up until the last year they were still working on this idea of being this Patreon/Ko-fi alternative without understanding the policy of Stripe and how that would work. I don't think it can be stressed enough how weird cohost's framing of the Stripe Policy Issue is. Nothing meaningfully changed about Stripe policy, ASSC just thought they could be Patreon/Ko-fi on a whim and then realized that's not how it works and had to stop dev on that.

Also, there was always this undercurrent of "Uber reinvents cabs and busses" to the whole thing. The Artist's Alley thing was just Project Wonderful, but was being pushed as a wild new thing for user-supported ads. And, like Uber, it was a pretty rough implementation of a thing that already exists because you had to click to a specific area that was just ads!

As much as I had enjoyable moments on cohost, I think it's silly to paint the site as anything it wasn't. I mean, one of the last big culture issues on the site was staff refusing to delete racist comments on a staff post until publicly shamed for their cowardice! Cohost was clearly not good for everyone who posted there. Someone got ran off the site for linking to cohost's official feature requests forum too often to ask for accessibility features, and popular people on cohost waxed poetic about how deserved it was that the person got ran off the site for being annoying. There were near-constant issues with racism not being handled well at all from a culture perspective, especially when people would criticize how white the culture of the site was. Hell, I saw someone be extremely bigoted on bluesky, then run to cohost for sympathy and get it. Even when people pointed out how bigoted they were on bluesky, with screenshots and everything, they justified it and had loads of defenders helping justify the bigotry!

I think teeing cohost up as some sort of "good sites can never exist unless it's corporate sludge" point also doesn't make sense since the site never had a plan for profitability. You can't be funded by a wealthy friend forever. There never seemed to be a plan, which is fine for a hobby but not fine when you're begging for cohost plus subs every month or so to fund your near-100k salaries. It never made sense in the long term, their own reports said so, and people were shouted down for pointing these things out.

No webbed site is perfect, and that includes cohost. It had issues up until the very end. It does no one any good to ignore the bad or pretend it was perfect, regardless of how much the site was good for you personally.

Sucks that a lot of cool people put their eggs in that posting basket, and I hope they find a different place that scratches similar itches.

[brucewaynehater101]

I miss the feeling I had when I first joined this fandom, I knew virtually nothing so everything was correct and I loved everything, even if that stuff just isn’t true, i was like

Bruce is a bit emotionally constipated but loves his kids? Hell yeah sounds legit

dick is a silly happy flippy man who is a bit promiscuous? Love that for him

Jason is a mega feminist literature nerd who is also buff and takes care of the street kids? Perfect man honest

Tim is a nerd who never sleeps and is queer and has never known the touch of a man nor woman? Sweet

Steph is waffle obsessed goofball? Well I prefer pancakes but right on

Cass is a mute badass who loves her fam? I love her

Duke is a normal dude? Well someone has to be and he seems neat

Alfred can do no wrong? Aight, I love old perfect tea men

Damian is a little prick? So are all middle schoolers give him time

But then I had to go learn about the characters and now I have complex opinions about them, and can see the inherent racism and sexism in how they are portrayed

You know before I joined the bat fandom I did not use the exclude tag in ao3? Like tmnt and dp have some bad stuff but usually I could just scroll past.

but now I am having to avoid fics where whole ass adults are bullying and/or oversexulizing a child

Im constantly on the look out for untagged batcwst

I struggle to find fics that don’t describe dicks ass

I have been in this fandom for probably about two years now and y’all I swear

sorry for ranting, and don’t worry I love all your stuff and I know the just back click don’t leave mean comments rule

I’m just tried bc most of the stuff I thought was true turned out to be false

Mm. I do find it a little exhausting trying to navigate the lines of what's canon, what shouldn't be canon (but is due to racism/sexism/homophobia/etc.), and just having fun.

I'm also trying to cultivate the mindset of what I've seen on Tumblr about not policing other people's ships/ideas. I am highly uncomfortable with some (particularly underaged people and adults dating), but I'm also not leaving hate comments. Like you said, the backspace exists for a reason.

Idk. There's a toooon of takes/ideas about the batfam that are inherently false, but as long as they aren't racist/sexist/etc takes, I don't see the harm in them. So what if someone wants a coffee obsessed Tim? So what if Jason's kill code is very strict? As long as they don't claim it's canon, let them be

But yeah. I have a mile long exclude list for fics on AO3. I used to use it only for triggers (I can not do stockhold syndrome, my lords), but now it's got other weird ass shit I've stumbled upon (I saw a fic where the batkids were spanked as punishment??? Like I said, not gonna leave hate comments or single anyone out. Just not my cup of tea).

I also am usually not a fan of romance/sex. It's why the batfam intrigued me so much (found families usually don't have that in it). I like exploring dynamics outside of romance and thus love the batfam. They've got so much going on that romance/sex is not needed. They are such a mess without that dynamic being added (talking about the Bats getting with a third party, but, again, trying not to yuck anyone's yum).

However, I agree. There's a ton of misinformation within fandom. I like how complex canon gets with the characters, but there's also widely different takes with them (mostly talking about Bruce here. He can either be trying or just a straight up horrible dad).

[end-otw-racism]

#Vote to End OTW Racism

A Call To Action

Earlier this week the OTW responded to our previous action and reaffirmed their commitment towards combating and preventing racism within its platforms. 

They also thanked us for working to keep holding them accountable to their goals and we intend to keep doing so. 

To that end, Fandom Against OTW Racism is calling for our Second Action!! This action is centered around the upcoming Board Elections set for August 11-14. We want to encourage everyone who can to participate in the election process and spread the word far and wide about these elections! 

Currently, 4 of the 7 Board positions are up for election, which is a majority. Now is the time to get involved. In light of multiple accounts coming forth about the state of the organization, it is clear that fundamental changes need to happen – and those can only happen with a shift in leadership, from what we currently have to one that is capable of supporting and implementing those much-needed changes.

Please join us in calling upon our fellow fans to vote to make things better for all of us!

How to get involved:

With four Board Seats open, now is the perfect time to act and make this issue a key component of this election to select people who demonstrate a commitment to combating racism in our fannish spaces. So if you can, please plan to vote this election cycle!!

If you already are a member, use your voice and Vote. If you have donated in any of the fundraising drives for AO3 in the last year, you are likely eligible. You can check your eligibility status here by selecting “Is my membership current/Am I eligible to vote?”

If you are not currently a member or eligible, consider donating $10.00 so that you can gain membership in OTW and be able to vote. In order to vote your donation must be received by June 30th. 

When donating you can add ‘End OTW Racism’ to the ‘In Honor Of’ field if you feel comfortable doing so.

If you donate, ensure you select the yes to the ‘Do you want to be an OTW member?’ question

[alt text: image of text that reads “Do you want to be an OTW member? ($10 minimum donation)” with two radio buttons to select from with the choices of “Yes” or “No”]

We understand that many people may not be comfortable doing so or may be unable to and that is perfectly fine! You are under no obligation to spend any money and we do not want to pressure anyone into doing so. There are plenty other ways to get the word out to encourage others to vote as well as continue to show support for this issue.

Other ways to get involved:

When posting a new fanwork between now and August 14, add ‘Vote to End OTW Racism’ to your title and provide a link to the End OTW Racism blog in your top Author’s Note. Reminder: New fanworks participating in the action are always welcome to join our AO3 collection.

For those who may not be creating works or who use AO3 just for commenting/ kudosing, create a Pseud named Vote To End OTW Racism. AO3 will automatically append your default name at the end. So it would look like “Vote To End OTW Racism (Your Name)

Add a link back to this call to action on your profile page, for anyone clicking on your name to see. 

Update your pfps/avatars/user icons across social media

Participate in the upcoming Board Meeting between now and the election (August 11-14). The next Board Meeting is scheduled for July 2 and we will post an explainer about how to participate soon!

Send a letter to the Board encouraging them to be more transparent and to better advertise their Board Meetings. (credit to Punk who allowed us to utilize their work for this template)

Submit questions during the Q&A period with the Board Nominees. (We will post about this closer to election time)

Follow us on Tumblr, Twitter or Dreamwidth as we will be reviewing Board Candidates through the lens of our goals and providing more information on how to be involved over the election period. 

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

aita for making jokes about "racism"?

BEFORE YOU CLICK YTA IMMEDIATELY: this is about dnd/fantasy races, like elves, gnomes, etc

i like dnd and dnd-esque media and have been watching dungeon meshi with a friend recently. a running joke i have is saying "hes racist?"/"that was just racism" etc when a character says something that stereotypes another race, or ill say a stereotype preceeded by "not to be racist but" etc. for example, stereotypes in this case include things like dwarves being good at blacksmithing, or elves being fancy and refined, or animal-person races having characteristics of the animal theyre related to. to be clear, im not making comments or jokes about skintones or other features related to irl human race.

normally i think something like this would be closer to specism, something that isnt actually a real social issue in real life, but in media like this they are called races, so i thought it was funny(?) to call it racism.

for the record i am not white but am very white-passing and basically count as socially white anyway.

am i the asshole for these jokes? they're pretty tame i thought and i would never joke about real racism, im only leaning on stereotypes that have nothing to do with real people and taking shots only at fictional races, but i worry joking about "racism" is bad form even if it is fictional racism. it also should be said i dont actually "believe" these stereotypes, obviously elves aren't real but even so i dont think they would have to be bound by stereotypes about their race or whatever. its just a silly joke, usually at expense of a character who just said something else stereotyping.

[ba1duran]

i understand a lot of people being shocked about wyll ‘complaining’ about his horns, and there are even some people who outright call him racist for his lamenting (after helping the tiefling’s / while speaking to a tiefling tav / having karlach in your camp, no less), but like. and this isn’t a jab at anyone because it is a widely perceived interpretation that he’s calling his horns ugly and therefor thinks lesser of all tieflings. he’s not talking about tiefling horns. it is specifically noted that mizora gave him devil features, a comment that goes over a lot of peoples heads and i’ve not yet seen really click for anyone (again, not a jab, because it’s easy to interpret everything the way it’s been interpreted because of phrasing).

you remember the blood war? the thing that caused so many tiefling causalities and forced the tieflings out of avernus? the war heavily featuring devils? wyll’s horns are atypical for a tiefling, but are a style that are recognizable as a devils. mizora specifically gave him devil horns.

wyll doesn’t think tiefling features are disgusting. he doesn’t look down on them. him grieving what has happened to his body isn’t him saying tieflings are gross and weird and bad and hideous. he’s upset because he’s been marked in such a way that displays him as an oppressor, an aggressor, a figure of trauma and pain for the very people he’s worked so hard to protect. it’s also why he gets distressed and offended if you compliment his horns, because they are such a heavy symbol of pain and torment (to himself, to tieflings, to so many others) and he cannot possibly understand the idea that there might still be any beauty in him. also, you know. he’s allowed to be upset at the fact that his soul and his body were forced through all the layers of the hell within seconds — he’s allowed to come out of that canonically agonizing and horrific experience traumatized and scared and angry, because, you know, he mentally and physically and emotionally endured all the torments of hell when he was changed.

and, just. it is a little funny /s. the fact that other characters can be so blatant in their very legitimate racism towards others, and the fandom totally looks the other way or makes a joke out of it, but when wyll laments about becoming a devil — not a tiefling, a devil — suddenly he’s the worst person ever and everyone feels weird about him. and again, i understand that it was an easy to miss distinction, but, like … (gestures). anyway.

[bubbipond]

Ranting this late in the day should be a crime but I am exhausted by the people in the BL/GL community.

Have any of you seen those videos on YouTube that are like basically talking about the persons least favorite pairings? I just watched one where they said force and book look too similar to play love interest. I’m sorry but the way that is insanely racist and just not true??? Then I saw in the comment section of a different one people saying that Phuwin should stop acting in bl’s because he obviously dislikes kissing men. Then the rest of the videos are just really bullying these actors. Listen, I’m all for criticism, but these videos aren’t constructive. Normally they are just mean and vile.

There are pairings that I don’t love so I don’t watch them. I wasn’t the biggest fan of Kinnporsche but I promise you I do not go around saying mean things about Mile or Apo. But let me address the ones that I just find extremely rude.

Number one Force and Book look nothing alike. I have never had an issue telling them apart because they have such vastly different features. I think a lot of criticism for them stems from their original series being super annoying and Books character irritating a lot of people. That wasn’t a Force and Book problem that was a writing problem. There is a long history of racism in Asian communities. Where a very popular joke is you can’t tell them apart. I’ve heard it in real life, in the K-pop scene, in anime and dramas, and now in BL, I guess. Now don’t get me wrong, there are actors who I feel would play brothers amazingly because of similarities. But Force and Book are not one of them., at least not in the case of being “almost twins” like this person was saying.

Moving onto the Phuwin comment, I think this one is so stupid because he does not have to take BL jobs. Actors stop doing these all the time. Pairings dissolve and new ones come around all the time. Also pairings dissolve and the actors stop doing BL’s as a whole. We have seen it countless times. so if he really didn’t want to have to have intimate scenes with a man, he definitely does not have to. Now let me say, I do understand the critique about the way he kisses but I don’t agree with it being just blatantly because he is kissing a guy. If you watched him in the non-BL series he has been in, where he has had a partner who is a woman, you would know that’s just how Phuwin kisses. If you were really trying to give good criticism, that has to be paired with you paying attention. If you watch how he talks and how his mouth moves, whether he’s in a show or talking in real life, his mouth movements when he kisses makes sense. Also keep in mind, and this is not a slight at him, but he has very skinny lips. So when he’s kissing Pond whose lips aren’t big, but they’re bigger than his obviously it’s not going to look like he’s doing as much. But to try and low-key say that he has some repressed homophobia because you don’t enjoy his acting is weird. Also keep in mind, and I’ve joked about this before, this pairing almost always end up playing characters where Ponds character is seemingly more into the relationship than Phuwins characters. Not that his characters don’t care, but it’s almost always pond being the character that has an egregious amount of affection for Phuwins character.

I honestly don’t normally watch videos like these, but I clicked on it just because they were discussing a lot of popular pairings. and in my head, I was just like oh you’re doing this for views. There is no way this is for any other reason when every pairing you have chosen to talk about are highly popular pairings. You mean to tell me out of all the ones do you want to talk about the ones with the biggest fan bases and I’m supposed to believe that you aren’t just trying to get views on your page?

This is coming from somebody who doesn’t even particularly love half of the pairings this person discussed. But something I have noticed is that in a fandom/world of media dealing with oppressed peoples, there is bigger critique than in its counterparts. Because not only are these shows about a group of people who have long been suppressed due to sexuality, but it’s also about a group of people who have history of racism against their cultures. It is okay for a series to not be the most expressive and beautiful and extravagant series on earth. It is okay for things to be mediocre at best. Because even the LGBTQ+ community have very very boring stories. That does not make the stories unworthy of being told. We are allowed as a community and as queer people to have media the same way as everyone else. But instead, we get these very dismissive and low-key weird and social relationships in media.

Okay thank you for coming to another TEDTalk…I hate a lot of you and a lot of you are weirdos. (:

[wings-of-fire-confessions]

I have been in the wof fandom for a while, since at least 2016, and I absolutely adore the creators in the fandom. I love getting to see how people view the books and making good critiques of the book series.

However, it annoys me how some people try to make claims that either don’t hold up or may have some validity at first, but falls apart when you put it in context of story of the books, or the world, or when you even just think a bit further about the point.

One of the things I have seen include Tui using Native American stereotypes in a tumblr post and using the fact that the characters (specifically the humans during the scorching) used feathers as accessories and were people of color. At face value, it seems like a valid claim, until you realize that all of the human characters are people of color and their societies don’t try to resemble that of Native American people in the books. Or the fact that the humans were the ones that stole dragon eggs and tried to use them as weapons of war. In total, I think there was one white person ever mentioned in the books (Axolotl).

Additionally, if you are going to talk about an issue in the fandom on a YouTube video, make it an actual video! By that, I mean if you intend to make a point about something, you don’t make a video that has no relevance to the topic at hand and then put the discourse in the description!

If you know the video I am referring to, the creator made a PMV for the fandom then put in their description why they aren’t making wof content anymore and that people should stop reading the books because of “Tui’s dangerous and bigoted writing.” I’m not saying that the person shouldn’t talk about issues in the fandom, but at least if you are going to do that make it its own video so people can actually SEE IT. Not everyone who clicks on a video will read the description, and when people go to read the comments, they are bound to get confused! (For context, the biggest thing being fought over was the freaking Glorybringer ship and how it is/isn’t pedophilia with op arguing it is).

I also watched the video they added in the link that was critiquing the “complacency in fantasy” (but mostly talking about wof) and it had some good points, until it went into saying that the Nightwings mirrored the Nazis and represented Jewish stereotypes at the same time and how it was “trauma porn.”

As I said before, some good points in the critique such as the treatment of Winter and the false DoD, and I get some of the points that the person was trying to make with how some subjects should be handled with more care such as arc 3’s slavery and the racism between tribes in wof, but other things such as comparing the Sandwings to Arab stereotypes without ya know, acknowledging how people that read the series treat the characters outside the books and how the books themselves handle their own characters (Such as Qibli and the whole Deserter winglet) is frustrating.

TLDR; if you are going to make a statement on fandom discourse or want to make an in depth critique about the series and want to make your point known, don’t relegate it to what basically equates to an optional footnote. And if you are going to make claims that relate to the real world, please back it up with evidence of both the in-text and information about the real-world facts (plus acknowledge at least some of the context around a series such as arc 1 and the fact that Tui is flawed but doesn’t mean that it can’t be enjoyed).

Sorry for the rant/long post, the way that some people handle criticizing the books and try to paint them like the worst thing ever just infuriates me because there is good and bad things about this series as all series are bound to have. Crafting a perfect story is hard to do and there will always be shortcomings in some authors stories, but that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy them or be inspired to create something that may improve or even tackle the issues within the books with more care.

I definitely understand what you are saying. As a Jew (Bar Mitzvah'd so I am connected to my community), the comparison to NightWings is pretty far-fetched and actually pretty offensive.

It's just like how people called Tigerstar a cat Nazi back in the day, when he was more like a racial purist, and even then he somehow was pro-race blending.

[aelinfireheartgalathynius]

The discourse about Sarah J Maas being called a Zionist is giving witch hunt vibes at this point. Nothing I've seen has been conclusive at all. Just because she's a Jewish woman who went on birthright doesn't mean you should loudly denounce her as supporting genocide.

I am a Jewish woman who is pro-Palestine — so, not a Zionist — but who loves her Jewish diaspora culture. I have anti-zionist and non-zionist Jewish friends who went on Birthright because it's a free trip abroad. I know Jewish people who are staunch Israel supporters and I have Jewish friends going to pro-Palestine protests. Jews are not all one thing, and in fact it's ingrained in our culture that we have NEVER been one thing. There are Jews of all races, of all levels of religious belief, across the political and socioeconomic spectrum, scattered across the world.

If I were a semi-public figure (I say semi because Sarah has been clear that she is not the one posting on her public accounts and she doesn't have much interaction with fans outside of tours) people would probably have loud assumptions about me being a Zionist because I am publicly Jewish, I was a Jewish Studies minor in college, and I used to work at a synagogue. Guess what? I'm not a Zionist. I donate to UNWRA monthly, I do my clicks for Palestine, and I do my best to support with what I have. As a multi-disabled person that's all I can handle right now. If I were a semi-public figure I don't know if I would feel comfortable posting anything publicly either, because people are vicious and terrifying creatures. Sarah has a husband and child. She had gotten threats about fucking ship wars. This is so much more intense than ship wars.

Making these loud assumptions and calling for boycotting SJM, commenting on her social posts even though she isn't the one reading those comments — this is what antisemitism looks like. I know those of you who are angry at Sarah won't want to hear that, or will say that 'everything is antisemitic now' — which is a refrain that should raise red flags since it's the same argument other people use about transphobia, homophobia, racism, etc. You're the good guys, you support Palestine and you're anti-genocide and so on. But using stereotypes about an ethnic group to make assumptions and harass an individual of that ethnic group is not a good look even if you're convinced you're doing it for a good reason. Take that energy and put it toward spreading awareness, contacting politicians, attending protests, maybe even sharing messages from public figures who have posted publicly.

I understand that a lot of non-Jews (and a small number of Jews) are saying that it "has nothing to do" with Sarah being Jewish, it's just that she hasn't "used her platform." I implore you to consider why you are seeing and sharing such anger toward this one (fairly private) Jewish woman and not toward other prominent authors, especially those who are more active online, who have also not spoken out. Do some soul-searching and many of you may find that because Sarah is Jewish, you feel that she owes you a public stance more than other people. Because she is Jewish you feel confident enough to make an assumption about her views and post publicly about these assumptions. That is antisemitism at work. That is why this feels like a witch hunt to me, and why it is upsetting to watch.

As a reminder, I am pro-Palestine. I am not posting this to defend anyone. I am posting this to remind everyone that Jews are not all Zionists. Jews are not all one thing, ever. And deciding you get to hand down judgement on a Jewish person who has not shared their views publicly is antisemitism. It is deciding that you can assume negative things about Jewish people from afar. It is deciding that some antisemitism is actually okay — good, even, if you think it's warranted. I understand that people have other qualms with her writing, but those are not tied to her Jewishness, they're tied to her doing things like using the name Illyria and Illyrians for her ACOTAR series, etc, which is the kind of thing other fantasy authors have done over the years. Doesn't make it good or right but it certainly doesn't have anything to do with Palestine or Zionism.

If you disagree with me, please do not send hatred into my inbox. I am asking you to interact with this post thoughtfully. If your disagreement is going to be an explanation of how Jewish people owe the world every ounce of our energy, health, safety and lives, please step away and take a breath. I do not share your opinion. I have great admiration for those risking life and limb, risking jobs, risking arrest, to support Palestine. However, not everyone should be *required* to do all of those things, especially if you're disproportionately expecting those larger actions from Jews, thinking we "owe" it to the world.

Also, I want to be clear: This is not really about whether Sarah is a Zionist. It's about the fact that we don't know, and you cannot pretend to know. Most of the arguments I'm seeing are making a lot of assumptions, and that is the part that makes me uncomfortable.

If Sarah ends up being a Zionist, I still stand by this post, because it isn't about defending Sarah, it's about my hurt and disappointment in seeing people make assumptions rooted in antisemitism, assuming someone's views based on Jewishness and little else.

[orangepeelshortbreadcookies]

https://www.tumblr.com/orangepeelshortbreadcookies/753844773286264832/what-is-this-my-pale-tits-are-sexier-than-his?source=share

You are saying " pale tits" cant be sexy??? Thabks for the discrimination.

Now i know you hate Pen for being fat AND white

Hello angry anon,

First of all, you really didn't have to interact with writers whose work you disagree with, let alone spamming their inbox and comment section with hateful, racist tangents such as this. This you?

If you don't like the fic, the back button is right there. Just click it and move on.

Secondly, the reblog you mentioned in your ask isn't even about Penelope, nor is it remotely Bridgerton-related. A criticism on a completely different author's racially motivated writing does not equate racism itself.

Go educate yourself and have a nice day.

[neechees]

CC: racism is alive and well here on tiktok, where random accounts will make up bullshit demographics for slides only to promote their shady link tree sales, but will also allow racism to run rampant and go unchecked in the comments because it gets their accounts more clicks, and then will also delete any comments that call them out for racism or their bullshit! I don't know why they deleted MY comments of me pointing out the misinformation they were spreading and that they were deleting my comments, but they didn't wanna delete the comments of people saying Native Americans are quote unquote, "basically Asians". So um, you know, fuck you, go fuck yourself.

I thought I'd bring this here, because tiktok literally removed my video not even an hour of it being up. For context, this was me calling out a tiktok account with thousands of followers @/eyeelixir on tiktok, where all their videos are just creating slides of people with various "phenotypes" (they even have a whole Playlist with this title) and then creating random, percentages claiming that's what those demographics were with no sources. For example, the first slide claimed that 0.8% of the world's population was mixed race with a "Native American/Asian" ethnic background, (and obviously this cant be true considering how low of a population Native Americans take up in general), and then showed a photo of an Alaskan Inuk woman (with no record showing she was mixed race or Asian), as well as actor Eddie Speads, who is not mixed race nor Asian, he is Lakota. While the account left my comment up that neither of these people were mixed or Asian, they deleted my comments elaborating on this as well as me pointing out that they deleted my comment & were likely using misinformation for clicks and to attract customers. However, they did not feel the need to take down multiple comments of tiktokers being racist & also spreading misinformation such as that Native Americans are "actually Asian" (& they're doing this because tiktok's algorithm is based on interaction, so more comments = more views = more people buying from them).

The tiktok account in general is VERY shady since literally ALL their videos tell viewers to go to their link tree to buy makeup products & are encouraging people to "collab" for modeling, but their linktree ONLY shows their social media accounts (a tiktok & a youtuve) & then where they are selling the products, but there is 0 transparency on their "company" (or what theyre trying to look like), who runs the account, any contact information, where the money goes or what they do, etcetera. Normally i wouldn't do this kind of thing since I'm such a tiny tiktoker, but I found it especially insidious since this whole tiktok account makes content off of people's ethnicities, fetishizing mixed race people, and lying, but they cant be bothered to get rid of racist comments because they want more viewers and more potential customers. If you see this tiktok account report it, and don't buy anything from them.

[strawberry-halla]

dragon age: the veilguard - a review: part one - the setting & reality

hello everyone! this is the first part of a multi-part review of dragon age: the veilguard.

disclaimer! i am not a professional reviewer, i am just another fan that thoroughly enjoys the dragon age series. my opinion is not at all the pen-ultimate truth, i'm just here to share my thoughts!

criticism and comments are welcome! i appreciate any and all discussions about dragon age! feel free to dm or send an ask if you'd like to share your own thoughts!

[this post contains spoilers for the entirety of dragon age: the veilguard, please do not click the 'read more' if you do not want to be spoiled! you have been warned!]

before we get into the setting of veilguard, we have to talk about the setting of dragon age itself. dragon age is labelled as a dark fantasy series. there's discussions of slavery, sexism, racism, and so much more. this dark setting is one of the most compelling features about the series. many people (myself included) praise dragon age for depicting such well-written worldbuilding of these dark themes.

in veilguard, these dark themes still exist in some forms. however, the themes have been watered down to some extent. for example, minrathous has been described in all previous three entries as the slave capital of tevinter. it is all but normalized in their society, engrained in the politics and economy of the imperium. i can't help but feel like it was deliberately avoided by the writers to depict this society.

i want to clarify that i am not at all saying veilguard NEEDED to show slavery to the worst of its' extent to be labeled as 'dark' in any way. i am a firm believer that depicting dark themes should be done as respectfully as possible. it should make sense in context of the world around it and shouldn't be done for 'shock factor' or a fuel to make an 'evil' character 'someone the player should dislike.' and it definitely shouldn't be carelessly thrown into the story for the sake of just saying, 'hey our game is dark! look at this bad stuff in it!'

this is just one example of a problem i have with the setting of veilguard. cultural identities between nations and societies seem to blur together or are completely omitted. this leads into a whole other problem veilguard has: the lack of past choice diversity.

when i found out veilguard not only was NOT using dragon age keep, it was only going to import 3 choices....from inquisition. and two of them were locked behind trespasser.....a dlc. ouch. i was....not happy. i still am not. part of dragon age's entire identity is that the previous game's choices were reflected in the sequel. it was an extremely cool and fun feature that had me excited to see how different decisions impacted current events and characters. yeah well! it's gone now. sorry!

veilguard suffers from this decision. part of dragon age's identity is wiped away and the sting still hurts. the setting is locked into a difficult path of vague references to past events, hiding them in codices strewn throughout veilguard, or never brought up.

however! this does not make veilguard unredeemable. the setting they do salvage from this difficult situation is still a compelling one. i thoroughly enjoy northern thedas, even if it is not exactly what i envision due to the constraints. each location is unique and memorable in their own way. i personally LOVE nevarra and the grand necropolis. i love the gothic imagery, culture, and the mourn watch faction as a whole. one of the great many new additions to the setting of dragon age.

veilguard does a good job of showing the player all the new or, offhandedly mentioned stuff in previous titles, without contradicting itself (for the most part). a lot of returning factions (i.e. the antivan crows, the grey wardens) have new layers of depth that make sense! the passage of time between entries helps with this, because it's perfectly understandable that organizations change overtime and adapt to new factors. i would not have liked origins's depiction of the grey wardens and the antivan crows 20 in-game years later. i'm glad things were changed or referenced as lessons for these organizations to learn from.

i'm not here to forgive and forget all that we could have had with veilguard. i agree with most criticisms with the game. the setting is the factor that suffers the most because of all that was taken away with 'the 3 choices.' i mourn what we could have had if dragon age keep was considered viable. but sometimes you just have to accept or reject what you get. people that reject veilguard aren't wrong for doing so. it's extremely sad and upsetting of what we COULD have had with joplin or morrison. but we didn't get those versions of 'dragon age 4,' to be honest it's a miracle we got a fourth game at all.

phew. there's part one! i got a bit heavy at the end but yeah, there we go. part two will come whenever i decide to write it i guess? part two is going to be about the storyline! i think this part is going to be a little bit more difficult to shrink down because i have many thoughts! so many! see you then!

[safedistancefrombeingsmart]

How do you deal with non-MF fans when they confront you about the Martin Freeman controversy (child abuse, racism, rape joke)? I've had quite a few of those telling me I shouldn't support such a "horrible person" and that I'm justifying an abuser.

I genuinely don't know how to respond because I don't know him personally, so I don't know what kind of person he is right now, considering that most of the comments were made a decade ago. And I don't think he is abusive towards his kids because they seem apparently to still have a relationship with him. I don't know what to say...

Hello! 😃

The simplest way to deal with it is to just ignore it. That's what I do 99% of the time. It's not worth my time or energy to change people's opinion about things or people I don't personally know.

Also, I was never really directly confronted about the controversy. I see the posts, of course. Mostly on Twitter, but also the occasional remark here on tumblr and other social media. But like I said: I ignore it. 🤷🏻‍♀️ I have more important things to think about.

Does that mean that I deny that he said some questionable things in the past? No, I don't. Because he did. Like so many other people. I mean, just look at the people around you, your friends, your family. Pretty sure most of them have said or done things in the past, they regret now. I know I do.

And like you said, most of the stuff is at least 1 decade old. The things I said 10 years ago... 😳🙈

But just in case: click