#and why I stopped using the fandom tag because people who frequent that tag will really make it their business

[lonelyslutavatar]

Me: *literally minding my own business, not even interacting with the fandom tag just drawing stuff that I want to see*

Some rando on the internet: "anyway I don't like *name drops me specifically* because they're not drawing what I think the characters should look like and no I don't know what a block button is"

[0w0tsuki]

Hey can we stop pretending like the only feasible reason that a trans woman would not like the term femboy is because she's some puritan anti-kinkster or somehow against men being able to dress femininely?

Like perhaps maybe the group of people who had to go through a phase of having to figure out and explore their femininity while being perceived by society as a man DON'T WANT to police the way men are able to present and express their genders? Like maybe WE DON'T want to make things even harder for transfem eggs. Like maybe we might have an interest in protecting transfem eggs and are speaking from the harm that we experienced as eggs ourselves?

Like maybe it might have to do with the fact that outside of Tumblr your average femboy is a trap fetishist? Like did we all forget the memes of "trying to figure out if the Astofolo icon is a trans woman or a fascist?"

Like some of us were discovering our transness during puberty in the early 2000s. You remember the early 2000s right? Where South Park and Family were at the height of their cultural influence, the R slur was a substitute for stupid, and bigotry was so common that "traps are gay" jokes could be made in polite company without having to worry about backlash. So imagine what kink spaces were like. Especially when you're a teenage trans girl just discovering herself.

I personally was so damaged by that experience that I began to believe that my gender-no my EXISTENCE was a fetish to be embarrassed and humiliated by and to be reviled for. I genuinely did not engage in relationships because I believed I was going to have to give in and tell them that they fell in love with a sex object. I did not believe that I was worthy of love. And it took YEARS of working through that for me to be comfortable with transitioning.

And after I worked through that I still have to deal with them. They haven't left kink communities they had their roots in. To this day there's a kink website I frequent that has community suggestions for tags IE: Unless the OP of the work goes back to delete this feature, anyone can "recommend" deletions or additions to the tags of the work. This is in place to make the proper labeling/searching/blacklisting of kinks easier to help curate content. In practice though it allows transmisoginists to basically graffiti any transfem artwork they come across. And let me tell you Femboy tags are getting added on right after they replace F/F with M/M on a transbians t4t work. And it happens so frequently that I have to check in about once a month to these trans tags to inform the most recent victim about what's happened to their works.

And outside of kink spaces I go into fandom spaces where I have had to deal with trap fetishists positioning themselves as fucking lore scholars when they harass trans positive folks about the Correct and Moral gender of the transmisoginistic character that they've got a fap folder dedicated. I got to see someone rise to twitch fame off the back of trap content turn into a “femboy icon” because he gave some of the trap money to trans charities and has a trans girlfriend. Who is still making trap content by the way.I've gotten to see reddit lose their absolute goddamn minds when the term Trap was banned from r/anime, shitting themselves so hard about it that they made their own separate website with transmisogynistic wojaks on the home page and everything. And then I got to see the fucking Bridget Debacle.

The reason I always talk about Bridgets trans confirmation is that it's the most widely recognized recent event where the exact shit I'm talking about was on full display. The reason why her being confirmed as a trans woman was such a big deal for trans girls was not just because she was one of the anime caricatures with her own folder in the trap enthusiasts masterbation portfolio. It was because she was GROUND ZERO for original coining of the word trap. And the EXACT same guys who deemed her a trap were now coming out in DROVES fuck EN MASS. But this time as self appointed femboys. We had so many examples of fucking Astofolo icon twitter facists trying to drudge up any type of left sounding argument using the femboy identity after having their initial arguments revolving around mistranslation were debunked. Crying that transfems were “stealing femboy representation” and trying to say that it was an “antitransmasculization force feminization trope” unironically. You know the cry of “Let men be feminine!!!!” y'all always bring out in defense of femboys. THAT'S who you're parroting! THAT'S who you got it from! We have had direct evidence of former trap fetishists dawning the term femboy when it became less cool to be openly transmisogynistic and then started appropriating leftist language to give their transmisogynistic arguments an air of legitimacy.

Like y'all need to understand that this magical space we got here is a FUCKING BUBBLE. Femboy communities in literally every other online space are former trap/sissy communities and are fucking cess pits of transmisoginy. I have seen posts by people who's only experience being around femboys was on Tumblr go out and check a place like r/mildfemboys to be horrified by the obsessiveness of the transmisogyny the femboys they interact with. And the femboys here aren't much better by treating being forced to acknowledge that these people exist and that is a still very active part of their community even if they don't personally interact with it as a personal attack on them and their gender presentation.

Y'all just want to pretend it doesn't exist and treat the idea that a Transfem might not WANT to interact with YOU(OH GOSH!!) because of it like it's some sort of personal judgement instead of something you're just going to have to accept happens when there's a large portion of people who share that title who are responsible for traumatizing them. But y'all got to go one step further. Y'all who go on about how femboys are our closest allies and about how “femboys and transfems are actually closer than transfems want to admit”. Y'all treat femboys like they're out little fucking brother in the queer community and it's our personal fucking responsibility to leave behind any personal baggage at the door in order to make them feel welcome.

Y'all can't handle the fucking idea that a trans woman might not be comfortable with sharing community with someone who's average member would call her a trap while jacking off to her selfies if he thought he could get away with it. That's she's not interested in playing the Astofolo icon game with them. Y'all gotta create a backwards narratives where she is against her own interests, where she is for making it harder for eggs in the future instead of you know. Asking for better from the communities those eggs are drawn too.

I have been forced to fucking put up with femboys in nearly every online space I've ever been in. And I

Am sick and fucking tired

Of putting up with femboys

[ladykettlechips]

It's Not That Deep

Being kind is a choice. Sadly, so is being a dick.

I absolutely adore being part of a community where I can share my passion with others, be it as a writer of fanfic or simply a bystander. However, there are also downsides to being within a community, and sadly, it is other people who can ruin that joy and our experience of creating something for other fans, who want to devour content while a series is still being created, or has come to an end.

It seems like it is a frequent thing for a handful of people to ruin the fandom experience for others. They become anonymous or hide behind a name in order to actively go out of their way to harass creators within the community. There have been threats and vile accusations thrown about, and for what? To scare people off of AO3 and tumblr, just because you don't like something they created for a FICTIONAL character within a FICTIONAL setting?

Loves, it's not that deep.

Sadly, these kinds of people have run creators off of various apps and websites with their continued harassment. They have gone above and beyond to act horrible towards people they don't know, for a story or a piece of artwork they could have clicked the back button on. For something THEY can actively turn their back on and ignore.

If they had as much passion and energy for real world issues, their time would be much better spent. Instead, they have chosen to take a cowards route and harass other people online for something that is, in truth, insignificant to them. It is as if these people are consciously ignoring tags or warnings, because they WANT to start a fight and act in such a disgusting manner.

I can't understand it, really. Your time is much better spent doing things you enjoy, rather than coming after people who are doing the things that they enjoy.

Now, if the creators were actively promoting bad things, then yes, call them out on it or report them. Half the time though, these creators put disclaimers about how they don't promote certain things, but it is there for fictional purposes.

Our time and energy is precious, and for those taking time out of their hectic schedules to share their passion with us is a wonderful gift. Yet there are those who want to destroy that passion, and it is a sad thing when they win; sadly, cruelty often trumps kindness, and I have seen one too many creators fall to the whims of people who prefer to be dicks over being kind.

I would hope these people eventually see some sense and stop what they are doing, but trolls don't always see reason or see the light. I just hope that someday they get the hug they have been craving, or perhaps the talk they need to understand why they act like this. Until then:

It's not that deep.

It's not that serious.

It is FICTION, not reality.

Your favourites won't notice you regardless of how hostile you become.

You are not making the internet a better place with your harassment.

Have a hug, eat a snickers. I highly doubt you'd act like this in real life to people you know, or to someone else's face, so go have a nap and chill a bit. Don't make a mountain of a molehill, and remember that these fictional characters you are getting into a tizzy over are not real.

Thanks. Peace out.

Edit to add: I have yet to be harassed. I know it will happen one day, because it is inevitable at this point, but I am speaking out for my friends and fellow writers who have sadly experienced it.

[soullessjack]

ok so carried on from this post theres a specific tag i wanna elaborate on which says ‘[jack] isn’t a pacifist he actually has a very complicated relationship with violence’ in relation to how he’s usually (mis)characterized by the fandom.

so first, Jack isn’t a pacifist. pacifism is a total opposition to all war and violence, and a belief that it is never justifiable for any reason or circumstance. He might be averse to violence as a first response or reaction, and he’s frequently shown to want to help the person before anything else—especially people he finds sympathetic or similar to himself (ie Mia Vallens, Sylvia)—but he’s not averse to it altogether.

Jack seems to really only be against violence when it’s used against innocent or undeserving people, including himself. Like in S13, he has no problem using his power to force an angel to stab themself with their blade or going to war with Michael and killing thousands of angels in his army for roughly 6-8 months (and we must remember, it was an effective genocide before he decided, completely out of the original plan, to kill Michael and made it a war) but he still has a total meltdown over accidentally killing an innocent security guard and almost strangling someone who did nothing wrong like he’d assumed. In Ouroboros he states that anyone who could hurt/kill an innocent person is a monster, even if they’re human, which is probably the clearest establishment of his moral code the show could offer.

I think Jack’s particular aversion to violence or even general aggression/anger is also caused by the fact that he, at three days old, was told by Sam that he would need to be kept from hurting other people while his powers were still largely uncontrollable (and therefore, still making him a threat and “evil” if he couldn’t do that). He’s also seen for himself what his power/his overreaction inadvertently causes for other people–like throwing Sheriff Barker into the vending machine (which he apologizes for later)—and is blatantly scared of it at first, so I think it makes a lot of sense that he prefers nonviolent behavior as an initial or default response. However, pacifism is still defined by the belief that no circumstance or reason whatsoever can justify an act of violence, which directly goes against how Jack personally feels about and uses it.

Going back to Ouroboros, he personally defines a “monster” as anyone who would willingly harm or enjoy harming someone who doesn’t deserve it, even if they aren’t actually a particular species of monster. And going back to S13, he has no problem murdering Michael’s army or even torturing Michael himself (which he specifically does because Michael “hurt his friends, hurt his family.” Ergo, Jack does believe in using violence, so long as it’s only used as a justified defense, and I think that is also a part of why him torturing Nick so horrifically is meant to land on us as Something Ostensibly Wrong. Did Nick deserve it? Yes. Mary isn’t even upset about him being killed; she just halfheartedly tells Jack “not like that.” Nick deserved it, but he is still barely a threat to someone like Jack (which everybody knew)—and because he isn’t a veritable threat, none of what Jack does to him can actually qualify as a “defense.”

It’s violence for the sake of violence, with a personal grudge for motivation, and while it’s shown a lot throughout SPN, it hits a lot harder coming from Jack specifically because he, again, is generally averse to [ab]using his power like that—even against other enemies. He believes in necessary and defensive violence and acts accordingly, which makes the completely unnecessary violence he uses against Nick more disturbing; it’s not about defending his loved ones or even stopping a nefarious plot anymore (he literally banishes Lucifer within seconds of getting there). It’s just about making someone suffer and enjoying it. In Absence we also get the vague implication about Jack’s particular fears and insecurities: he’s afraid that he isn’t really loved or wanted for himself, but rather that he’s valued for being “the muscle to take out enemies,”—that he’s nothing more to the Winchesters than a pet monster and easily discardable if he’s no longer useful to them.

On the flip side of that, he’s also canonically very happy to be wanted, needed and helpful to his family/friends—which is to say, again, he’s perfectly fine using violence as a justifiable defense that serves his family (which is also why he chooses to burn Nick to death after Sam indirectly wishes it on him, and why he’s happy to murder all of Dumah’s targets under the guise that it would make Sam and Dean happy). Once he realizes the truth and horror of his actions, however, he tells Dean that he is a monster, by his own definition. But how exactly is this complicated, you might ask? Well I’m glad you did, because I’m getting to it. Throughout his entire short-lived life, Jack has had to be painfully aware of the damage he can and does cause, and what it means for how he’s perceived and the ever present debate about his “true” nature.

I can’t find it now and probably won’t bother looking, but i had another post about how Jack inwardly perceives himself and wants to be perceived in return, particularly when he’s perceived as a threat. To summarize: because of his particular moral code, Jack inwardly knows he would never [want to] use his power against his family or friends, and is therefore not a threat to them, and therefore does not want to be perceived as one despite the danger he still poses with the potential alone. The eggshells that people walk around him are solely based on the fact that he has immense potential and capability to hurt them, all prevented by his simple continuous and impermanent choice to not hurt them.

The only thing standing between them and everything he’s ever done to their enemies is the fact that he considers them friends and has no reason to want to hurt them, and that’s exactly what Jack himself personally lives by. It’s the same blind trust that Sam and Dean have built with Cas; they know what he can do, and they know when he would or wouldn’t choose to do it. It’s a mutual understanding that “I know you can hurt me but I care about you enough to trust you not to do that,” and “I know I can hurt you but I care about you enough to not hurt you and Im glad you trust me to not do that.” I also mentioned it in the post that in Last Holiday, Jack doesn’t deny it when Mrs. Butters says that he’s insanely powerful; he does, however, deny her saying that Sam and Dean should be afraid of him, because “[he] would never hurt them.”

Insanely powerful? ✅

Potentially dangerous? ✅

A threat to be feared? ❌

(This is also what makes Mary’s death by Jack and Sam and Dean’s subsequent actions exceptionally tragic on both sides; their mutual trust is inadvertently, yet still effectively, broken. Jack has also effectively gone against his own morality by harming people he loves and people who don’t deserve it, and now in S15 is struggling with the loss of said trust and the need to earn it back).

That, my hypothetical audience member, is the complicated part. Having to find a middle ground between necessary, defensive, justifiable violence that his surrounding community would approve or appreciate, and the completely unnecessary abuse or misuse of power (ie violence) that would register him as an evil monster and/or a threat to be put down for the justifiable greater good. There’s also the additional middle ground between presenting and maintaining the image of himself as docile and non-threatening (the behavior of which is hugely infantilized by the fandom), while also still being able to defend others with the same violence that could easily lead to him being seen as a threat.

in conclusion (1): Jack is not a pacifist but he has an extremely complicated relationship with violence and the fluctuating justifications surrounding it which he must meet in order to continuously be perceived as safe and trustworthy in spite of his capabilities.

In conclusion (2): this is the truest of jack true forms:

thank you for coming to my yap session, don’t let the door hit you where the good lord split you on the way out 🫶

[sepublic]

It may be just us being involved in different fandom circles but I feel like you run into the stuff you complain about way more than I do. It always makes me surprised to hear some of the things you hear about (sorry you get exposed to so much of it btw that sounds pretty frustrating)

It’s because I used to frequent the Belos circles and enjoyed some of the popular blogs, but when the finale came around soooo many people went mask off when they realized the finale wasn’t going to give them what they wanted. And so that part of fandom became unbearable overnight, as I realized that a lot of people I thought were chill or assumed had a basic understanding of the narrative or even storytelling… didn’t.

It’s really disappointing, as someone who was a fan of Belos well before anyone else, since the fifth episode (something others might’ve noticed); Is it too much to want fandom to discuss a character as he is onscreen, recognize his role in the larger story, and appreciate how he contributes to other characters’ meaningful arcs???? Most “fans” are fake, they don’t even like Belos and need to sanitize and mischaracterize him.

It’s disheartening realizing people don’t care for the main characters at all, and how this all ties into this fandom’s larger White Guy favoritism; Because even white women are being ignored in favor of this specific colonial family (which includes Hunter)!

I dunno how anyone can be so brainrotted by the Wittebane obsession that they can’t appreciate at all how S3 was a love letter to Luz and her relationship with her family, some can’t even find solace in it… I guess none of it counts if there isn’t a dedicated section to those white guys! People love to take their anger out on Luz’s character by disparaging her arc and making “Fix-it” stuff about her being there for Belos, because they hate the finale said she doesn’t owe him a damn thing and doesn’t want to.

Plus, I often look through #The Owl House tag a lot, especially the Recent section. So I’ll see a lot of stuff regardless of whether I’m looking for that specific character, because all of the characters fall under that umbrella tag, naturally. And I can’t just filter Belos because sometimes there’s actual good stuff using that tag.

Overall, there’s a reason why I now avoid Belos-centric blogs, because so often there’s a dedicated tag to complaining about how their white guy fave got done dirty and how the entire show is retroactively bad, often reblogging a lot of those aforementioned blogs’ bad takes… I was all for the “We can enjoy him critically!!!” crowd until I realized they don’t actually enjoy him critically, they just stop at the “He shouldn’t commit genocide” bit. Which is not even the bare minimum, it’s just part of it.

I see PoC be harassed by waves of anons for criticizing how people discuss Belos on their own blogs. Meanwhile the top Belos blogs are so openly, blindingly white, and infantilize themselves in a White Fragility way; Esp when it comes to acknowledging their fave is racist, or that their writing and fanart has issues. Belos fans love to prove everything we criticize about them, huh?

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for skipping RP prompts I don't like and apparently pissing people off?

I can't believe I'm asking this but its happened a few times now so I'm honestly starting to doubt my whole existence. So I've been sick for a while, nothing terminal but its sticking to my ass like shit to a shoe, so to pass the time I roleplay with people.

I used to use Omegle, that went down the pan, now I use RoleChat. Most people who do fandom roleplays gravitated to RoleChat from Omegle, so it hasn't slipped my mind that it might actually be the same people and not different ones.

Anyway. I rarely have a prompt of my own, I tend to surf and look at other people's prompts. If I don't like what they've sent, I just disconnect. Currently RoleChat's userbase is pretty small, so I'm also aware I'm frequently connecting to the same people.

However several times now I've been insulted for disconnecting?

Comments include:

"What the fuck are you even on here for lmao." "Stop wasting my time you fucking bitch log off if you aren't gonna do shit." "You're so fucking annoying I stg."

And similar sentiments.

It happened again the other week because someone kept sending M/F and F/F prompts in the Chanlix tag, which is an M/M pairing. They were the ones who sent the first reply and then I'm pretty sure they blocked me.

I feel insane because surely its better I just disconnect rather than trying to force myself into an RP I don't want to do? Like why would you want to RP with someone who clearly isn't into the prompt? What do they expect me to do, write out an apology before disconnecting?

I'm genuinely confused and like. Need an outside opinion on this because its happened across several different tags, and I wanna know if its normal to be so angry that someone just isn't vibing with your prompt?

What are these acronyms?

[daeneryseastar]

I really wonder where you got the idea that the greens consider Aegon a worthy king. No one thinks of him as such, including his family lol. Even he himself says that he does not want the throne and is not born to rule. People support the greens because: 1. They just like these characters more. 2. They believe that the greens in general would be better rulers than the blacks in general. 3. They believe that the greens have usurped the throne to protect themselves. In neither case is it a question of Aegon being a good king. Stop attributing thoughts to people that they didn't express.

i’m going to need y’all to read my post front to back at least three times, and then back to front thrice more. no where in the fucking post did i put down that the greens consider aegon to be worthy to the iron throne. the whole worthy statement literally goes “…aegon did nothing to prove he was worthy of being named heir, let alone being king.” the key words are ‘did nothing to prove’, HE did nothing. no where in the post did i mention the team green fandom, minus putting the tag ‘anti team green’. you’re nitpicking because otherwise you wouldn’t have something to whine about. i get that media comprehension can be tough, but really? is this the best you all can come up with? i understand all of the ‘reasons’ why people support the greens over the blacks. that’s why i’m not team green. it’s a comparison. how many times have you and your buddies haha-ed over rhaenyra being a privileged brat who did nothing to secure her claim? i’m guessing quite frequently, considering i still see the same dumbass talking points despite blocking the tags. your precious uwu aegon and his stans can handle having one of your arguments pointed out as sexist, right? you can’t come after rhaenyra for one thing and then give aegon a pass for the exact same reason. it’s hypocritical and contradictory to do so. use your brain. i PROMISE *pinky promise at that* it’s not that difficult to do.

[kangals]

way back in 2014, probably a few weeks or months after you posted that picture of boone with the stick on his head, i checked your blog out and so dearly enjoyed all the dogposting that i followed. i think you were the first dogblr blog i actually followed at the time, but it's been ages and my memory is bad, so i'm not fully sure. it wasn't long before then--2012 i think?--that i had gotten a new dog of my own, a border collie. iirc he and boone were just about the same age.

in 2018 i lost that blog i'd followed you with, and a lot of connections with it. i didn't return until 2021, and when i did, i didn't refollow most of the old blogs; i don't think i even really went looking for them. it took me a while to get back into the swing of using tumblr.

last september, my border collie had a sharp health decline, and i had to say goodbye. it's not the first time i've had to put a pet down, but i think it was the hardest. i'm still not over it. even just typing this now, i feel raw.

then in march or so, i made a new fandom friend who knows you, and i enthusiastically recalled following you before and how much i enjoyed it. i didn't even know about stellina, and now there's kep too! but... i also didn't know you'd lost boone. i followed because i still really enjoy your blog, and i love your collies too. and butters!!! so glad she's still here!

idk what made me look tonight... maybe because i talked about my old border collie with someone today. i went looking for the posts immediately around when you lost boone, because i guess some part of me wanted to know what happened. i spent the better part of an hour (maybe longer?) reading posts from the weeks before the decline, and then the loss, and then the deluge of old boone pictures after, and i've been crying pretty much the whole time just reading your posts and tags about him.

and this is a long and windy way to get to saying thank you. i'm glad you shared your grief, though that seems like a weird thing to say. there's something cathartic about crying over someone else's dog when you still hurt about your own, and knowing you're not alone in that kind of sorrow. boone was such a beautiful boy. i'll never forget that silly post that made me check your blog out in the first place, or the years of posts i stuck around for after. i wish i'd remembered to follow sooner, but the archive is still there, and it's so fun looking through all those old posts about him and his quirks and antics. he was amazing.

sorry for the length of this, i just... really wanted you to know that he touched yet another life, i guess. and i've been so deeply enjoying your posts about stellina and kep. i know it'll be a year soon... i hope there's some peace in how things have gone since he passed, and i hope the anniversary isn't too hard on you. thank you for sharing him with us.

i've been on tumblr for 14 years and this is, genuinely, the nicest ask i think i've ever been sent.

thank you - sincerely. there's been a lot of times over the course of this blog that i've felt like i was oversharing, or talking about pointless things only i cared about. i still so frequently start typing out a post only to stop mid-sentence and delete it because i can't help but think "no one cares about this." possibly it's why i like to talk about my pets so much - they're not me, but i'm the one who knows them best, so i get to say "hey look at this" and ramble and have people say "i'm looking" back. when boone passed, i lost that filter and i poured my grief out into this blog because it was the closest outlet i had. and to have hundreds of people not only acknowledge this but to commiserate, to reassure, to share their own stories - that helped healed me more than i can put into words. it's exactly as you said: there's a catharsis in grieving together.

i am sorry you also had to say goodbye. i wish i could say it gets easier, but i think that would be defeating the point of grief. your grief is your love and damn it if there isn't any act more loving in the world than choosing to say goodbye to an old, loyal dog. you think of how dogs were domesticated tens of thousands of years ago, of how human society and dogs have developed intertwined, of how we have records of ancient greeks and romans carving loving epitaths on their dog's graves, of how a prehistoric dog's skull was found with a bone placed in it's mouth after death, and you wonder if grieving a dog isn't one of the most consistent experiences in the whole of human history that there is.

i'm glad to know that this could bring you some comfort, in some way. it's incredibly touching to know that you kept me and boone in your thoughts for all this time. i am doing ok - i've been reflecting a lot as we approach the one-year mark. i'm not sure if i'll be able to condense those thoughts down into coherent words, but i'll do my best. i hope that my silly little pets continue to bring you some happiness, and that you've found peace with your own grief.

thank you, again - this is extremely touching and means a hell of a lot to me.

[xenon-demon]

I fucking love pretty much every version of the “celebrity x Just Some Guy™” trope that there is for Steddie, but in honor of having a totally reasonable amount of wine I’m going to tell you about the version I’m currently thinking about all the time, one of my dumbest yet also funniest AU concepts: modern!AU with streamers Steve & Robin and Hardcore Fan™ Eddie who writes reader-insert fic about Steve.

Steve and Robin, aka EvenStevens and BirdBox_ on Twitch (“My name is spelled with a P-H, Robin, that’s such a stupid name.” “No, it’s actually even better this way! You don’t want to just use your real government name for something like this, and you would just make your username ‘SteveHarrington01′ or something equally uninspired-”) frequently stream together and have a shared YouTube channel. They got popular doing reaction videos that quickly devolve into the pair of them bickering on camera, and since the internet just loves the ‘snarky woman and her emotional support himbo’ dynamic, they got very big, very quick. Plus, it certainly doesn’t hurt that they had the combined might of Dustin and Erica to help them bend the algorithm to their whims.

While most people recognize their platonic-with-a-capital-P soulmatism, there are still some that are convinced they’re secretly dating - they can’t decide if it’s hilarious or absolutely maddening that every time they try to disprove the rumors, they somehow get stronger. Robin doesn’t feel comfortable coming out to the internet yet, and without that trump card some people just can’t understand why they’re not dating.

...there are other sections of their fandom, however, that absolutely do believe they’re not dating. Mainly because they’d rather be dating Steve or Robin (or both!) themselves, and write all the reader-insert fanfiction you could ever possibly need about it. Robin is largely ambivalent to the concept of fanfiction being written about herself as long as they’re not writing smut, since at least that way they’re not insisting she’s dating Steve.

Steve on the other hand finds it absolutely hilarious how despite how much he’s changed, he’s back to being the heartthrob he used to be in high school - and, he’ll be honest, he thrives on the attention. He’s given everyone the green light to write whatever they want - dared them to make it raunchier, even - to the point where it’s a running joke that Steve will read your reader-insert fanfiction about him unless you tag it with some form of ‘Steve don’t look’. He even used the prevalence of fic about himself to come out on stream.

(Steve’s in the middle of re-organizing his flower field in Animal Crossing when he’s interrupted by a donation. “Hey Steve, really sorry to tell you this but people are writing porn about you... and they’re making it gay. Like writing about you getting fucked by a dude. Just wanted you to know so you can say something about it.”

Steve stops dead, his screen freezing on his open inventory. “Hey, uh, why the fuck would I have a problem about a fictional version of me bottoming? Or- wait, do I seriously give off homophobic vibes? I’m literally bisexual. Hey Dustin, can you ban that guy please? Christ, the nerve of some people. If that’s how you feel about people being gay, or about people writing things that I’ve already said I have no problem with, you can leave this stream right now because I don’t want you here.“)

Many people lost their minds after that stream, one of them being popular tumblr blog whorefireclub.

Eddie didn’t plan on starting a tumblr blog for self-insert fanfiction about a twitch streamer. Really he didn’t, and every time he thinks about it in terms that plain he kind of dies a little on the inside. It’s really all Gareth’s fault, for getting fed up with Eddie’s dumb parasocial crush on a streamer and daring him to just “get it out of his system already”. So, using a bare-bones anonymous tumblr and many, many beers as his cover story, Eddie posted some of the most quickly written and unedited pieces of writing he’s ever produced in his life.

Except he wrote it with an AMAB reader character - and for those of you unfamiliar with the reader-insert sphere, that’s like fucking hen’s teeth. People are pretty good at making things gender neutral at least in their descriptions, and sometimes the anatomy is vague enough that it’s ambiguous, but the majority is written with AFAB genitalia for the reader character.

Eddie’s little drunken post blows up, and at first, he’s never regretted a life choice more.

After thinking about it, and seeing just how many people left comments with their reblogs or came into his askbox directly to thank him for giving them the representation they wanted, he starts to feel a bit better about the whole thing. In fact, it kind of tickles his “protector of the outcasts” instincts; there are people who can’t enjoy the content they want to because it doesn’t gel with their anatomy or gender identity. Eddie could, hypothetically, if he wanted to be absolutely insane about this one hot streamer guy, help fix that problem somewhat.

A couple of months later and he’s become “the guy who writes inclusive reader-insert fic”. While a fair amount of his work is gender-ambiguous, both in anatomy and in avoiding gendered language, more than half is written for anyone who finds themselves underrepresented in the usual reader-insert scene; anyone AMAB, AFAB people who can’t do female language, he’s even written a few oneshots with intersex reader characters. He did research for it and everything. It’s certainly not how he planned for this to work out, but it’s actually kind of... nice. He’d written a lot of fanfiction in his youth, mainly about Lord of the Rings and Star Trek, and while this isn’t how he’d imagined returning to the hobby it’s actually really fun. (It’s making his celebrity crush on Steve a million times worse, of course, but he’s in denial about that so it’s totally fine.)

He’s a little shit, so his blog header has - underneath his personal details - a PSA that reads “Steve, don’t look at this unless you have the balls to shout me out on stream ;)”. Eddie thinks he’s absolutely hilarious.

Right up until he wakes up to find his following has exploded overnight, and upon checking his DMs from his mutuals realizes that - oh shit - that bastard actually did it and talked about his blog on stream.

And Steve said he liked it. Steve likes the porn that Eddie wrote about him. Jesus H. Christ, Eddie is so unfathomably fucked.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

if this were to exist as a fic it would be told through social media posts/DMs. one of those fics that uses unconventional (i.e. non-prose) formatting, you know the ones. the concept actually came from the fact I fucking LOVE fics like that, I’m a slut for any of that House of Leaves-type shit. one time I read a fic that consisted of 8 short stories and each one had a HTML puzzle you had to solve to be able to read it, e.g. one you had to highlight because the text was in white, another you needed to hover your mouse over to make it scroll through the text - I can’t remember the rest but it was SO COOL.

(or, to put this another way, I read homestuck at a formative age and it forever changed how I feel about formatting stories.)

[canonizzyhours]

Omg the anon who mentioned anti-Izzyarchive. I had to block that account because I was so sick of their shit on the Izzy tags and going around fandom. They kept asking why no one made an archive of Izzy fans harassing people and implying that without an archive it’s not true. Other Izzy fans harass people sometimes. Sometimes not in public, sometimes harassing other Izzy fans, or at least shunning and mocking people. I deal with it. If Izzy haters made a similar archive from the other side it would just be accused of being more harassment. I think it’s really fucking weird to make an account dedicated to criticizing people who don’t like your blorbo. I don’t care if someone doesn’t like Izzy. I don’t care if someone doesn’t like this show. Collecting screenshots of mild criticism to show how oppressed you are and starting fights while claiming you’re the one being harassed is weird and unhealthy. I thought that blog was a joke at first. The fact that they’re serious is embarrassing. I don’t want to say that we’re not all like that, but it’s true some of us aren’t. I wish they would stop insisting others make blog like theirs in order to prove that some people are jerks. Anyone can be a jerk. They are frequently a jerk. I don’t trust them and I don’t think their callouts are constructive for the fandom or for them as a person whoever they are. Izzy fandom would be better for all of us if it wasn’t constant negativity. I’m here to have a good time. I want to see blorbo art not archives of starting fights with people who don’t like blorbo. Who does that? Grow up.

#197.

related posts: #193

[chainsawmascara]

Hi, hello, if you're a fan of astarion (which you are bc this is tagged solely with his name), consider familiarizing yourself with the words "sex worker" and "trafficking victim."

Because if i see one more post where astarion fans casually say prostitute and hooker like that's Still Cool to Say, I'm going to lose my goddamn mind. He says that about himself in a derogatory way. Why are you then referring to him and other characters in a derogatory way? What. What are you doing. Why are you doing that. Why do you think that's okay.

I've done various forms of sw. Never fssw, to be fair (also I've had multiple partners try to traffic me and this is a thing i, under any other circumstance, would NEVER bring up but mario voice here we GOOOOO) (fssw example: the drow twins), but boy howdy! Half the astarion fandom makes my skin crawl with how frequently and flippantly those terms are thrown around!

Pixels vs real people, etc, etc, yes, HOWEVER. Your use of these phrases are a direct reflection as to how you'd refer to Actual People in That Industry or Who Are Trafficking Victims irl given that's how Terminology Works.

They are. The least respectful words you can use. There are people in the bg3 fandom who have been trafficked and see you consider them hookers! Against their will! There are probably fssw in the fandom who see you saying hooker! Which is degrading and commonly regarded as an outdated and distasteful phrase! There are other swers who see that! Maybe stop calling people hookers and prostitutes and respect people! Even if they're pixels! Because basic human respect should be normalized! And self-loathing derogatory statements a trauma victim makes about himself should not be normalized as the Acceptable Terminology for People Experiencing These Things! Because language and culture are connected regardless of whether or not we're speaking about fictional characters! Fiction is, by its very nature, allegorical! These words have meaning! Maybe use the words that aren't awful!

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk, I'm very excited for the extremely likely backlash I'll receive here!

[rainbowsky]

Hi Rainbow,

I just want to ask you something I've seen several times now since I joined the fandom. Is it true that XZ's big name fans openly call fans to rate other people's work (not just WYB's, because I know that happens a lot) 1 stars on Douban and other sites. I'm asking purely because I want to know the truth, and I'm worried how it'll negatively affect XZ in the industry, not because I want to put that blame on XZ. Please ignore this if this isn't something you want to post on your blog. Thank you

Hi Anon,

What's with all the asks lately about anti/toxic fan behavior? Every turtle who reads my blog should know by now that I think focusing on what those people say and do is pointless, and a very unproductive, negative approach to fandom.

You're all free to do whatever you want, but I hope you can stop bringing these topics to me. It's not what I want to focus on, think about or talk about.

This truly is the last question of this type I'm taking. We should be focusing on GG and DD. When there is a lull like this, and things are slow, now is the perfect time to watch their projects. I highly doubt everyone's seen them all, but if you have then a rewatch is always worthwhile.

GG's movie is coming out early next year, why not also read the story it's based on? The Legend of the Condor Heroes by Jin Yong. FANTASTIC, FANTASTIC story. Absolutely gripping, exceptionally well told. I've been working my way through this series for the past several weeks and I can't recommend it enough.

As for your question, Anon, yes - that type of activity/behavior is a typical part of toxic fan culture, although GG's active fandom solos are known to be especially dedicated to this type of toxic fandom. It's a double-edged sword. On the one hand they are boosting his popularity and clout, and on the other hand they're really messing with his career and harming other fans and artists.

GG and DD's fans are especially horrible to each other and are constantly launching attacks on each other and on each other's idol. Some of the worst attacks against GG and DD were heavily pushed by XFX/MTJJ against each other's idol. The infamous 'desperate illiterate' attack against DD, for example, was largely pushed by XFX, who actually still frequently use it to this day.

My hope is that GG will gradually start to shed this type of fan, and I believe there's some evidence that he's intentionally, carefully shifting his image toward that goal. But in the meantime, this is just where things stand.

A GG solo posted an essay on Weibo a while back that was translated on Twitter, outlining some of their experience in that fandom. It was an interesting read and should give you some insight into how they operate. My thoughts on all of that can be found here and here.

I have also written a lot about similar topics in the past. Just a reminder that if you want to know my thoughts on most past/non-time-sensitive fandom subjects, you can always browse my masterlist post and explore the tags on my posts.*

*Just make sure you're doing so from my actual blog page, because if you access a tag from your timeline or from a reblog you'll get every post from all over Tumblr that has that tag, whereas if you access a tag from my blog you'll only get content from my blog that is tagged that way. You can also do a search on my blog for subjects you're interested in.

[gorgeousundertow]

FIC WRITER INTERVIEW

Tagged by @lamialamia

How many works do you have on AO3?

13

What’s your total AO3 word count?

423,658. Hoo boy.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Fundamentally People (Good Omens (TV) Kudos: 782 

The Most Dangerous Thing is to Love (Sherlock (TV) Kudos: 283 

S2.7: 49:07: A De-Montage (Bridgerton (TV) Kudos: 279 

The Opposite of Undercurrent (Sherlock (TV) Kudos: 275 

The Force of The Interaction (Sherlock (TV) Kudos: 238 

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes and sometimes almost immediately after I get them and frequently I stop and reread them and read them aloud and tell everyone they were the best part of my day.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

I write exclusively happy endings, because I have a pathlogical need for a happy ending, and every fic I've written happened because I wanted it to exist so I could read it. That said, maybe From This Day To The Ending of The World? Because...it's still a little complicated? (Not really though, it's still A Happy Ending TM)

What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

Uh. They're all really happy. But I think Fundamentally People was the sweetest.

Do you write crossovers?

Haven't yet!

Have you received hate on a fic?

No, never have (thank heavens)

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Ohhhhh yes. Looking at my fandoms, it's often the "oh no, what's happening I seem to be very attracted to you, what can that possibly mean? NOTHING AT ALL CLEARLY except we should do that more but never ever talk about and certainly not talk about FEELINGS." Sometimes it's that. Sometimes it's "ohholygodwecanbonebecauseyoulovemetoowhew." One time it was "We are in love and married but Victorian Repression so we don't quuiiiiiite know how to do sex?"

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I'm aware of.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! Or they're in process, anyway...

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No! It would be very fun to try, though!

What’s your all-time favorite ship?

Johnlock Winnix Ineffable Husbands Brad/Nate Why would you ask someone to choose between their best beloveds?

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

I'm pretty good about finishing, actually. I have some ideas kicking around that I might never get to, but I don't have anything I've genuinely started that I've left undone.

What are your writing strengths?

I think I'm very good at dialogue, and decent at pacing (current fic-in-progress notwithstanding grrr). I think I capture voice pretty well.

What are your writing weaknesses?

I'm not always great at setting a scene. I tend to rush through, and I feel like I'm capable of quite lovely writing, but I'm impatient and skip over it. I'm not always great about plotting - I long to write something heavily plotted and gripping, and then I'm like...crickets.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

Whelp, as somebody with one (1) language skill, I'm not great at it. On occasion, I've needed to use another language--Russian and German have come up recently, I've called upon Good Old Google Translate which is obviously not ideal, but I checked in with a couple of friends when I wasn't sure it was correct. One time I intentionally used Bad French (it was for Aziraphale, who is supposed to be bad at French, and a French-speaking reader was very upset. I explained why I did it, and it was fine, but it was pretty funny).

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

My very first fanfic was for Twelfth Night because I am a Giant Nerd.

What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t written for yet but want to?

I'm in the midst of a Gen Kill fic, so that's on its way. I want to write IronStrange! And Webgott!

What’s your favourite fic you’ve written?

I'm very proud of From This Day To The Ending of The World. It was a new form of storytelling that I'd always wanted to try, and I'm really happy with how it turned out. I'm also really pleased with The Most Dangerous Thing is to Love because it did exactly what I wanted it to do (i.e., it was the fic I wanted to read).

Wheeee tagging @jenkil @latibvles @basilone and anyone else who feels like it!

[beigepillow]

Some people get very weird in fandoms. I don’t make anyone read my posts yet people get mad that they see them too frequently when I use the relevant tag? I wish I knew who sent that ask I received so I can block them. Why didn’t they block me if I was annoying them? I think it is because they wanted access to the posts they like. I am not going to turn off my anon asks because I know that people like using them to send asks and I like receiving them but I am tempted to. Why would I go out of my way to send myself so many asks as I was accused of. Contrary to what this blog displays, I have a life outside of saezuru. I am just able to set aside a couple of mins a day to answer questions about a story I love. And on top of that, to count the number of posts I made in the tag and imply that I am ruining their scrolling experience in the tag. Does that person not understand other things happening in this world right now? How lucky of them that one of their problems is having too scroll too much in a tag. Will that stop me from tagging? No lmao I don’t care. I used to be very uncomfortable making posts because I didn’t want to annoy people or piss them off but I have gotten more confident and realize other people’s opinions on how I choose to do things on MY posts don’t matter.

[alarrytale]

I know you repeat yourself lots on here but thank you for all your explanations, they help so much! I feel like I have so much knowledge about the industry from you because you back up what you say and it makes sense. I love Larry but I'm German and follow German artists too. One German artist I love would queer signal a lot and then he suddenly stopped and it made me sad for a long time as I feared he was going deeper into the closet. But I read what you said about Louis that if he wanted to signal more he would need a beard to balance out the straight and gay because he is closeted, and it makes me think because my fave artist was signaling a lot when he was in a pr relationship and he stopped signaling when he left it. It makes a lot more sense to me now. A guy couldn't be queer signaling a lot if he doesn't appear with a woman as he would get too much speculation about his sexuality. I would rather not much queer signaling from Louis then he get a beard. It makes me wonder if this is why we get to see Harry be so flamboyant on stage, as he is always in a big pr relationship. Now that he's in a low key beard relationship he is acting more straight. I hate the pr relationships so will take less signaling for that although I wish we'd get some signaling now and again.

Guten tag, anon!

I do repeat myself a lot don't i lol. I think it's complicated topics we're discussing and we're trying to make sense of what we're seeing together. So sometimes things need to be repeated or looked at from different angles. Sometimes people are just new to my blog and sometimes they haven't been following the discussion on certain topics. It's just how things are.

It is all in the balance! Navigating the closet is finding out how much queer signaling or coding you can get away with without the queer speculation becoming too loud and you'll have to resort to closeting measures. If you do resort to closeting measures, like getting a beard, doing a denial or have tabloid articles linking you to women like a womaniser, you can afford to be a bit more yourself and show it to the world.

I would rather have less queer signalling and less larriebaiting from Louis than him having to get a beard or drag F around amusement parks more frequently. I think H got to do MP because he agreed to the whole DWD stunt mess. I think he gets to be queer on stage because he's linked to women or dating a woman regularly. Right now he is in a fake low key relationship and acting more straight, how gay is that next album of his going to be?

I'd love to get a signal or two once in a while too, but i do think we get some and we need to appreciate them for what they are. Louis singing 7 and singing i love him i hate it, without having a beard and us only having to endure F once a year? I feel spoiled compared to how these last few years have been. Harry, who never talks about 1D, wearing that umbro shirt? That was huge.

I think if we come to expect the back and forth, that is them trying to keep the balance, this fandom would be a lot less anxious and demanding.

[rockinlibrarian]

why do you ship incest. adoptive siblings are still siblings

Well, of course they are, in real life. But we're talking fiction, and fiction is not about showing only the perfect and unproblematic. It's about asking what if?

Now the chances are that you, Anon, don't even follow me and aren't actually interested in my response. You've made up your mind and are only using this ask to express your disgust in the form of a question. But I think it's an interesting question, and I'm going to respond anyway.

There are many different angles to reply from. Why do I ship incest? That almost implies that I choose my ships based on whether or not they're incestuous. What you have to understand is that, in almost every instance, people who ship incestuous or even pseudo-incestuous (which I'll get to in a minute) relationships have not chosen to do so because incest turns them on. They're not saying, Hey, it's COOL to be in a romantic relationship with your sibling, EVERYONE should try it! Shipping, in fiction, is about exploring the relationship between two characters in different settings. In fact, you'll frequently find AUs of such pairings where they aren't siblings at all, allowing the writer and reader to explore the relationship without having to consider the implications of whether or not it's incestuous. Of course, I say that, even though I've never written such an AU myself. Nope, I've always addressed the issue head-on.

Which brings us to the pseudo-incest concept, which tends to be the warning tag I use on my Fiks-- because sometimes it's up for debate whether the pairing IS incestuous in the first place. Again, in real life, you are correct, adoptive siblings are still siblings, and adoptive families are REAL, often more so than their bio families would have been, and I've got a different fandom whose third season I could rant about for forgetting that canonically for reasons completely unrelated to incest (*cough*Legion*cough*). But the only ship I have that falls in this category is between two of the Hargreeves "siblings" from The Umbrella Academy, and I put the "siblings" in quotes here because in this case we are not talking about a happy little adoptive family here. We're talking about a group of children who were "adopted"-- ie purchased-- and raised in basically a military academy, not a family. In fact one of the themes of the show is that these incredibly messed-up people finally come to SEE themselves as family and love each other as family-- which they were NOT doing from the beginning. It's like chastizing couples who meet at boarding school for incest because they lived together as children. The Umbrella Academy even canonically has at least one romantic history amongst them (and I'm not particularly interested in that pairing even. The Homecoming King and Queen, eh. Has nothing on the Apocalypse and the Knight-of-Stopping-the-Apocalypse, the One Who Cries if You Step on Ants and History's Most Notorious Assassin, the ones who are simultaneously Best Friends and Nemeses-- see? INTERESTING!) Now, it is still debatable, and I don't fault anyone for saying "still too close, it's not for me," but that's different than saying "this ship is morally repugnant and therefore you are morally repugnant for not understanding that."

And then, why do I ship it? Why does anyone ship anyone? The irony of this is that I, of all people, am not a shipper. I prefer Gen fic. Even when I DO ship, I still don't like smut. And up until this particular ship, I never shipped anybody who wasn't canonically at least implied to have romantic feelings! If you go through my / tags on AO3, the vast majority of them are in fact canonically married couples. I have always been the person who rolled their eyes and said "You know, people can LOVE each other STRONGLY without it being a SHIP" at shippers. I honestly have no idea why this particular pair wants to be romantic in my head! I have never once entertained the notion that my OTHER, even bigger, favorite pseudo-sibling pair in fanfic, Cary and Kerry Loudermilk, might be romantically involved, and they are even closer, and they love each other SO SO SO SO much, and I have written SOOOOO many fics exploring THEIR relationship. And other people HAVE written slash fics about them. But I can't see it, myself. They just don't do that. And that's the way I see them. But for some reason when I try exploring Five and Viktor's relationship in the same way, the little "NOW KISS!" voice in the back of my head won't shut up. And I accept that there are many other people who do NOT have that voice, who love their relationship purely platonically and are just as sure that they don't do that as I am sure the Loudermilks don't. We can love these characters in our own ways!

Which brings me to the biggest takeaway from this question: ship and let ship. We don't know why anyone latches on to any particular ship, problematic or not. And we all have squicks and even just pairings we're not interested in-- I am not interested in a LOT of pairings, even mainstream canonical ones, especially ones that seemed to be based on hotness and turn-ons rather than personality, which there are LOADS of. There are many reasons for a person to not approve of a ship in their own opinion-- I personally have always found millennial-old immortals with young adult humans to be squicky, and never understood their widespread appeal, but even I made an exception when I fell for Jason Mendoza and Janet on the Good Place (I could write an essay about why THAT one is compelling and a perfectly good exception to the mortal/immortal issue too), so it's not even like there are hard-and-fast-rules on a person-to-person basis. There are even other reasons to find Fiktor squicky beyond their pseudo-sibling status-- the complicated (though not millennial-different) age issues (which can also be avoided through AUs or when-it-takes-place changes in setting), the fact that they've frequently threatened each other with violence-- okay maybe not FREQUENTLY, but even once could be enough of a squick for some people. But everyone's tolerance for whatever they deem squicky is different, so it's their OWN responsibility to just NOT READ that which they don't like!

Now if you HAVE been actually following my Tumblr, you'd know that the biggest social issue I tend to post about is the Freedom of Information, because I'm a librarian and it's one issue I actually have a decent amount of expertise about. The line between sensible curation and censorship can sometimes be hard to see, but it does exist, and one of the main criteria is that, when building a collection, you have to take your own opinions out of it. You can say "I don't agree with that," but as soon as you add, "and no one should have access to this thing I don't agree with," then you have problems. Because some things that some people find perfectly innocent-- like the fact that trees don't have gender-- can be seen by someone else as "dangerous indoctrination". And sometimes someone doesn't agree with something because THEY are objectively wrong-- "I don't agree with teaching the true history of slavery in the United States because it implies our Founding Fathers were imperfect"-- and you ESPECIALLY do NOT want opinions to keep FACTS from being accessible. But anyone can attempt to back up their opinions with facts, so drawing the line is really murky! So you err on the side of accessibility, not on repressing disagreeable ideas.

And AO3 is really great for this, because as long as something isn't plagiarized, it's fair game. It's your job as a READER to use the handy-dandy tags and rating system to avoid that which you don't like! And everyone can hold their own opinions about fictional characters in harmony!

tl;dr: things that are Bad in real life are not automatically bad in fiction. Ship and Let Ship.