#bib speaks

[bibliophilea]

So... this isn't the first time I've seen people being incredibly mean to a whole section of the phandom. It's the first time in a while I've seen a post this bad in the main "danny phantom" tag, though. I have Thoughts™ that have been stewing for a while. Thoughts™ that shouldn't be put in the tags of someone else's post.

I'm not going to link anything. These are just my thoughts, raised to the forefront by recent posts in the main tag.

TLDR: I have two main Thoughts™:

No matter what you ship, I welcome you to this phandom. The folks who openly despise real people for shipping fictional things do not represent all of phandom. Y'all deserve better than being called shitty names. Your ships do not make you a bad person, and I personally welcome you.

To y'all who keep trying to draw a line in the sand to define who is "degenerate" or whose work is "degenerate": the moment you draw that line, you create a way for others to shove people behind that line. And the folks who usually get shoved behind that line and called "degenerate" are lgbtqia+ folks, and sa/csa survivors. It's happened before on LiveJournal and FFN, and it's happening now, irl, with book bannings across the USA (and especially in Florida). The only way to protect lgbtqia+ folks and sa/csa survivors from this abuse is to not draw a line in the sand at all. Don't call folks "degenerate" for any reason, unless you're ready to have that finger pointed back at you by a larger and more negative movement.

If you desire fuller context, it's below the cut.

First: no matter what you ship, I welcome you to this phandom.

The views of hatred and disgust that pop up in this phandom don't represent all of phandom. No fandom is perfect, and we'll always see some form of the "logic of disgust" from some folks in any fandom. But no matter what you ship, and whether or not I personally ship it, I welcome you. You will find no disgust from me as I am now.

If you dig backwards into my blog, you might find some anti sentiment. My introduction to fandom was first FFN, and then tumblr, back when I was more of a black-and-white thinker. I'm pretty sure I experienced some form of shock when I really started digging in to the Wild West that is fandom. I don't know if I ever expressed this shock online. But none of you deserve to be called "degenerates" over liking whatever fictional content you like. Y'all are a part of phandom, too, and any attempts to erase you or deride you are wrong.

We shouldn't be drawing lines in the sand and throwing people behind those lines. That's dangerous.

Second: to y'all who keep drawing lines in the sand, please consider the broader context around you.

The moment you draw a line in the sand to delineate between you and your group of people, and "them" and their group of "degenerates", people find ways to shove other folks, including you and your folks, behind that line. Historically, both in fandom and outside of fandom, the folks who get shoved ALWAYS include lgbtqia+ folks, and sa/csa survivors. We saw this with the purging of LiveJournal. We saw this with the multiple purges of FanFiction.Net. We haven't seen this with ao3, as far as I know; but their stance seems to be very anti-censorship for fandom-historical reasons.

Outside of fandom, we are seeing this now. I'm doing my senior capstone project on book bans. According to PEN America's data, over the past school year alone, 154 counties in 34 states have banned 1557 books 3362 times overall. Over 40% of those bans come from Florida counties. And much of the "reasoning" behind these bans is the same logic of disgust that fandom applies to "problematic ships": They call it pornographic and pedophilia. They call it harmful and age-inappropriate. They largely target books about lgbtqia+ people and people of color. And this year, they've also targeted "books on physical abuse, health and well-being, and themes of grief and death" - expanding their censorship to "protect the children".

Censorship doesn't protect anyone. Instead, it prevents people from holding genuine conversations with real people about the censored material.

And if you're not ready to have that conversation, that's fine! You do you! But don't create an environment where other people can't have that conversation. That only breeds the sort of black-and-white thinking that leads to 1406 book bannings in the state of Florida.

This is just speculation on my part: but I reckon every single person who supports those bans would love to ban the same content you want censored. And they'd call for you and the content you love to be lumped in with them.

We all deserve better than that. So please stop drawing lines in the sand.

[bibliophilea]

That’s the thing, though - it is an effective design, because it characterizes him as someone who does not wish to be known. And of course, we know who he is, anyways.

thinking abt that time in one of my art classes when the prof put up a silhouette of L from death note and said “this is not an effective design bc you can���t tell who this character is from this shape” 

and everyone in the class went like “yes we can that’s L from death note”

[bibliophilea]

The voting stickers this year are really cute!

[normal-nightmare]

Dick and Jason should be more gay and insane about each other i think

[nobodys-reblogs]

yes hello what if I drew cross as a bunny

looking at you with big eyes

[bibliophilea]

If it helps - it’s not half the country. It’s half of the people who are voting. People who vote Republican tend to show up more than anyone else to vote, for a variety of reasons that I won’t get into.

Also, Republican votes tend to get counted faster than Democrat votes. This is also for a variety of reasons: red areas tend to be more rural and less populated, and they tend to close polling earlier than blue areas. People who vote Republican tend not to vote by mail, so their votes get counted earlier because mail in votes can only start getting counted on election day.

All of this combines to make things look dire on election night itself. According to AP, as of right now, Trump has over 67 million votes: 52% of the popular vote, sure, but only 20% of the US population.

While that is way too many, imo, it isn’t half the country. The demographics of the people who managed to vote are not the same as the demographics of the people who didn’t vote. The folks who didn’t vote - many because they couldn’t - overall tend to have a lower proportion of right wingers than the folks who did vote.

And that’s right now, on election night, at a time when Republican votes are being reported faster than other votes because of the factors above.

I feel what you’re feeling - it’s sickening to see how many people are coming out in droves to vote for that horror. But it’s not half the country. The majority of the country does not want this. It’s just that the portion that does want this is over-represented among people who vote.

That’s also scary, tbh. And infuriating. But it’s less scary, imo, than the idea that half the country wants this.

The folks voting for Trump are a minority. A large minority, and a vocal minority, and a scary minority. But still a minority.

it’s so jarring when you realize trump supporters aren’t a loud minority and that roughly half the country is voting for that man after EVERYTHING and it makes me sick

[bookishjules]

I wish we had more scenes of Izzy at Simon’s gigs or her being a band gf yk it would be cool

dude tell me about it!!!! i spend way too much time mentally attending simon's shows with izzy for us to have never gotten a canon scene of it. like sure we know she did go to gigs but i think the only time we get a band gf in attendance, it's maia in cofa. we deserve some real backstage moments. some simon calling out izzy's name before they sing a song he wrote about her. some izzy chilling at the bar in the back watching all these people loving watching simon and smiling to herself knowing he's hers. we deserve it. they deserve it.

[sparklyoats]

Started introducing carrot mash for lil man😍 its a hit hehehe

[bibliophilea]

twick or tweat? owo

How about a twick and a tweat? oowoo

By the power of these birthday gifts you sent me long ago!

You are twapped! By me! With the cattens in this house! And certainly with nothing else! Definitely no other creatures here, just cats!!

Speaking of which, there’s one, now! A little rascal… but she’s comfy cozy! Can you sneak up on her? You roll a…

12! Nice job! Oh, she totally knows you’re there, and she knew it the whole time - but Nebula let’s you get close! Close enough to give her chin scritches!

Her glare softens as you scritch her chin - she has accepted your offering! You have been blessed by the littolest cat in the house! May her blessing stay with you when things are bleak, to at the very least soften that bleakness the same way she softened her glare!

Happy Halloween! 🎃 👻 🐈‍⬛

[bibliophilea]

No, that gets filed under "misinformation". Specifically, misinformation that could have been corrected just by taking 10-20 minutes to look up and think about both Harris's and Trump's basic platforms.

Trump wants to cut taxes for corporations and put tariffs on imported goods. The costs of these actions will fall on the average American.

Harris's platform, meanwhile, addressed cutting taxes for the middle class, making rent and home ownership affordable, supporting the economy through supporting small businesses and cracking down on the actions large companies have taken to artificially increase costs to turn a profit, decreasing the cost of healthcare, and a variety of other issues that directly affect the average American.

Harris's platform is the first thing you get when you google "Kamala Harris platform". Her website's talking points show specific, actionable ideas towards the points above. Trump's platform (also the first thing you get when you google "Donald Trump platform") talks a big game, but it doesn't say anything actionable. It's mostly buzzwords, and it doesn't talk at all about how he plans to do any of it. And if you're worried about the cost of living and the economy, you've gotta wonder how he's going to pay for "carry[ing] out the largest deportation operation in American history" or "strengthen[ing] and moderniz[ing] our military, making it, without question, the strongest and most powerful in the world". A whole lot of buzzwords, and multiple contradictory points if you actually read the page and take a few seconds to think about them.

So why didn't most Americans do those 10-20 minutes of research and exercise a little bit of critical thinking? Why was there a surge in voters turning out for Trump, and a large number of voters who stayed home or voted third party? A part of it is people wanting someone anti-establishment, sure. They didn't see the things Biden managed to do to keep things from being worse now than they are, because things are still terrible. But you'd think they'd have learned from last time that "anti-establishment" doesn't mean "good", and that when it comes to Trump in particular, "anti-establishment" means "bad".

Anyways, what's done is done. People's actions speak louder than their intentions. And the actions of most people who voted, alongside the inaction of everyone who chose not to vote, resulted in another four years of POTUS Trump. People are going to far suffer worse than under a Harris administration, and it's going to take more than 4 years to fix what can be fixed.

That's what this post is saying. Regardless of your ideology or your intention, this is the result. And we all have to live with it.

To be clear, if Trump has won this election it is because of misinformation, electoral interference, corruption and mostly bigotry.

However, if you knew what was at stake and decided that you were willing to accept the possibility of a Trump victory rather than vote for Harris, you do not get to walk back an inch of that choice. You accepted responsibility at the ballot box, and now you get to own it.

[degenderates]

thinking again of that post that describes flowers in the attic as weird and campy....they get it

[robertalpascal]

i'm a bad girl (been misleading google photos)

[andromedasummer]

insightful conversations with the 18 month old at the table beside me

[bibliophilea]

The Contact Wizard wasn't working well for me, so here's a link directly to their comments section!

The quickest and easiest way to send a comment is by clicking:

Submit a comment (under the Online section)

"I want to..." Send positive feedback

"I want to provide feedback on..." A TV programme or series

"My feedback relates to..." TV channels inside the UK

Continue

Then select:

"Which TV channel or service is your feedback about?" BBC One (that's where Doctor Who airs)

"What is the programme title?" Type "Doctor Who" (there should be a pop up to select "Doctor Who" as you're typing)

"Transmission date" is Day: 25, Month: 11, Year: 2023

Then enter your feedback!

The "Location field" allows you to enter feedback from Outside the UK!

After you've submitted, you'll get an email asking you to click the link to verify your email, ensuring that you're not a bot.

And that's all there is to it!

Support the BBC for having a trans character in recent episodes of 'Doctor Who'

Apparently the BBC (UK) has had 144 complaints about a recent episode of Doctor Who because it contained an openly trans character.

I've made a complaint to the BBC that there weren't enough transgender characters in Doctor Who. I would love if 144 other people did the same thing. Here's the link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/contact/complaints/make-a-complaint/#/Complaint

(For your easy reference: "The Star Beast" aired on 25/11/2023 on BBC One, and the trans character is called Rose.)

Please note that the complaint form asks for your UK postcode, so only UK folks can join in with this - but if you suspect you might have any UK-based followers, maybe give us a reblog to boost the signal?

Edit: I'm told that you can fill in the form even if you're outside of the UK, because the BBC provide service to many countries other than the UK, including the USA! Go for it. :D

Reply to confirm that you've done it, so I can keep a count!

Here's my complaint:

I recommend:

Avoid sarcasm or irony. Assume your post will be taken literally. If you are clearly joking or being mean you will be ignored or misunderstood.

Include some gratitude/appreciation. It's pretty great that they included a trans woman in a positive way, and they should know that they have explicit support for that.

Edit again: I'm seeing some concerns in the replies/reblogs that the BBC might not distinguish between "less trans people, please" complaints and "more trans people, please" complaints. Rest assured, this is nothing to worry about - the BBC publish fortnightly complaint reports, and they do pay enough attention to know when a complaint is in favour of or against trans inclusion. In fact, their 20 November – 3 December 2023 report is where the various news articles are getting the 144 complaints figure; that report says there were precisely 144 complaints that they have categorised as "Anti-male / inappropriate inclusion of transgender character".

That means the next complaints fortnight window is 4 December - 17 December. We have 8 more days to beat 144. By my count, over Tumblr, WhatsApp, the Fediverse and Telegram, we have 85 so far, which is well over halfway there.

Also, when you've done it, please reply to confirm you have done it, so that I can count us!

Thank you, everyone!

[sparklyoats]

Grandma made a (very colourful) cardigan for baby😍 im just sewing on the buttons..😇