#especially when the conversation is like. what content is ok for minors to be exposed to

[vang0bus]

ok im gonna say something and some of you might not like it. but sometimes the way people refer to kids and teenagers as "minors" sounds a bit like referring to women as "females"

[oddlyhale]

As much as I begin to see the horrors of RWBY fndm and how crazed BB fans can be, there'll probably be no comparison to the psychotics I had to deal with in the HH fndm.

While I can totally find myself being tolerant with all RWBY ships, there's something territorial when it comes to HH ships. It's a different beast on its own, especially with the popular artists that can and will control their fanbase.

Boy do I have a tale of 2020 that had me deal with the mental gymnastics these wild shippers put me through. The sheer hypocrisy, the fear fans had of standing up to them, the collective harassment.

In a synopsis, before we start:

Hi, my name is Hale.

Alfa and Alex are probably the most psychotic people I’ve ever met when it comes to my online daily life. I used to think my ex-friends were the bane of my existence, but Alfa and Alex started making me think just how angelic my exes were in comparison.

So let’s begin.

When I first met the Double AAs, it was Alex first (awhile back in late-June 2020 during Vaggie Week) but it was indirect. I was on my Instagram when I was tagged by a random user in something Alex had drawn. This was when I first saw the kill art of Vaggie. I was so upset that I had yelled at this random user for tagging me, as well as showing it via screencap on my twitter, as a warning to never do this to me to my followers. Keep in mind, I had censored Alex’s name from the screencap, not the random user.

However, Alex saw this somehow and became hysterical, thinking I was targeting him for what he drew. This caused an uproar of his fans to come attack me, and it did cause me to become scared and get away from my account. Alfa decided to insert herself into the mix, but I didn’t care enough for her to say anything. It was mostly Alex and how much he was “scared” and cried about the “fandom being so hateful and scary.” He went private for a while I believe, but Alfa was still going hard at me and sending more of her fans to come harass me.

If Alex ever says he is a strong and brave man, don’t believe him. He fears the HH fandom.

Anyhow, after Alfa’s fans had done their best to gaslight me, I didn’t give in. In fact, I made amends with the random user that tagged me. Somehow they assumed I would like the art of Vaggie being killed, which was childish to even believe in. Nonetheless, I forgave them, and we moved on from there.

But even when we both resolved this together, Alfa and Alex decided that it would be fun to make this “kill Vaggie art” a meme, or trend. With their huge followings combined, they were able to get their artist fans to join in and start creating so much hate art of Vaggie. Many of them drew her head being cut off, mutilated, raped and cheated on.

Alfa and Alex adore gaslighting the hell out of people. While they draw such hideous things, they will go ahead and say, “but it’s just fiction, it’s not real,” and call you psychotic for even caring so much about their bad behaviour. I can only imagine what Alfa’s husband goes through everyday since Alfa loves to make people second-guess themselves often.

Keep in mind, Alfa and Alex are the same people who will cry and shake when their fictional ship is invalidated and written out. They often wish nothing good for Viv and her team that are providing these ungrateful children with the show and content they so badly want. It shows you just how privileged they had grown up as children, doesn’t it?

This wasn’t fun, it was horrible. I didn’t realize just how many toxic people existed in the HH fandom until this “trend” began to spread.

But the funny thing that I'll never forget is how apeshit Alfa went when I had the audacity to draw Alastor plus sized. She accused me of being a pedophile, supporting MAPs. Even though she leans towards being pro-ship (likes incest, OK with lolicon, will condone drawing necophilia.) But me? Having the sheer audacity of drawing Alastor fat? It burned her so bad.

As well, this was being pushed on the VAs during a small livestream. The chat wouldn’t stop asking, “what do you think of the Vaggie kill art going around?” Of course the VAs ignored these questions, but it was really rude to even ask these things. Especially when Vaggie’s VA was in the same livestream.

But then this trend was proven to be a lie, by Alex’s own words. He dropped the ball in a one-off conversation with an anti that “he only created this to get back at the Chaggie shippers.” So retroactively, this trend was worthless.

What also began to start becoming obvious was that Alfa was too afraid to do anything on her own, and thus, she will recruit some darlings to defend her. Alfa seems to have more defenders than she has any confidence to defend herself, and when she has no choice but to stand up for herself, she will buckle and hide. She is weak, is what I had learnt.

I decided to just ignore Alex and Alfa as much as I could. With a friend though, I was given updates of what was happening on the Double AAs’ side in the meantime, and it’s amazing to see just how vile they can be with their own fans and haters. Especially with their new puppy named Salty. (I think that’s their name, another weak ass bitch.)

As months went by, the major event that stirred from the AA camp was when they were harassing Pastel Sky. This would be where the big reveal of just how horrible the AAs and their friends truly are, when they have nobody to harass except for kids. HH has a wide audience of children involved in this fandom, hence why many other artists keep saying we should try to be good examples for them, and keep them safe. But not for the AAs.

Pastel was ruthlessly attacked by them and it was all unwarranted. What they were angry about was that Pastel had the nerve to have negative opinions when it came to AAs, and they broke their own rule of “don’t like then block.” Even Galactic Potatoes (Spuds) would go out of their way, again, to gaslight Pastel into believing that what attacks she received on Twitter was allowed, because Pastel was asking for it. Spuds is well-known to gaslight, a thing they had learnt from the AAs quite often.

Pastel was a minor at the time, and it really doesn’t matter if Pastel was just 17. I don’t care if Pastel was only 17 and that “well she’s almost 18,” because regardless of age, harassment is not the answer. Follow by that, fighting with minors is actually fucking stupid and braindead. Spuds tried very hard to justify why attacks were OK, and that Pastel “should learn” how to grow up. I then learnt that Spuds went into hiding afterwards.

That was until the Double AAs’ discord chats were exposed, showing that they were practically mouth-watering at Pastel’s pain, romanticizing her apparent abuse and trying to convince each other how her punishment on Twitter was correct. Even one (I believe was Jay because he loves me and wants me back) wished that I would die. This would be the third time he asked me to die indirectly, which justifies my points on how toxic and abusive they are.

This entire event seemed to have unraveled a new wave of truths, and it’s sad to know it had to take a literal minor to have their masks fall off.

In 2021, Alex was exposed to be a thief. Stealing commission money for “stress pills.” If Alex is on a path of drug addiction, I hope it’s not the case. That’s a terrible place to be, and hopefully he’ll be clean and grow up for once. I still don’t care enough about Alfa, after now knowing all she is, is just a dramatic housewife with nothing better to do in her life. Perhaps if they just got jobs instead of stealing money from fans, they’d be leading well-productive lives.

From what I understand, many of the toxic fans of the Double AAs have either dropped HH fandom, or have deleted their accounts. Good, I hope they stay gone. The fandom deserves better, not trash.

Needless to say, the best advice I can give to those in the HH fandom that come facing the Double AAs is to not be afraid of them.

Over time, once you get used to their behaviour, you come to realize that this is their default. They’re not likable, they’re not nice, and they aren’t appreciative of one singular thing you do for them (hence Alex stealing from his own fans.)

It’s their M.O., they are just that cruel. So don’t fear them, but challenge their behaviour. Don’t stoop to their level of wanting to draw hateful art, though, that will fuel them. Talking down to them like their idiots always works like a charm.

Anyways, thanks for reading.

If anybody from the Double AAs’ camp ever finds this and reads it, I just wanna say that you are doing a great job, sweety. Thanks for proving me right by the new year. I appreciate the honesty for once. It only took you a year, just think of what other things you’ll do in the next year.

[talkwithmarcy]

Youtubers, step away from the underage fans!

Ok, before I start this post, I just wanna say first, in no way am I judging or telling someone how to make a living or their interest in what type of job their in. What I’m going to be critiquing in this post is a youtuber or an influencers’ way of INTERACTING with their fans.

Now this is suppose to be a simple concept, right? You either give them a picture, autograph, fulfill a commission, etc. However some people overstep that boundary, and it led them to utter shit. I’m talking about people who interacts sexually with their fans. And considering how big the internet is, some of these fans are underage, and interacting with them in such a way led to these influencers to be called a groomer or predator, whether they know a fan is underage or not.

This topic came around when I made a youtube video about a va (voice acting) youtuber, he was accused of doing some horrible stuff with his fans and friends, and one of them was manipulating and grooming underage girls. However, after doing an interview with this guy, me and my friend found some closure to some cases, open to new arguments for the unsolved ones and also find possibilities that some of the cases could be untrue. What I see as the main reason for the majority of the cases was because this youtuber was not very careful when it comes to interacting with his fans or providing fan-service.

This led to broken promises, mistreatment towards discord mods and closer friends, and then the grooming accusations. The youtuber admitted to being irresponsible and lazy when it comes to fulfilling tasks, and he admitted to being quite arrogant and boastful about being a huge youtuber.

But here I’m talking specifically about the grooming accusations. This is all because he was so full of himself of being a player and irresistible with his fans, he had no problem fooling around with them. His channel is composed of quite provocative content, and the audios are just straight up audio porn in his patreon. There’s no secret that some of the fans are heavily into that sort of stuff and they have no problem having a closer relationship with the youtuber if he initiates it. And because some fans are underage, I think the interactions can count as illegal.

All of this could’ve been avoided if he didn’t interact sexually on a personal level with his fans. I’m not gonna judge him for making provocative content because 1). he is an adult, he can make non-kid friendly content if he wants to, as long as it’s not hurting and disrespecting anyone, 2). if making these type of content is the more popular way for him to make a living in youtube, go ahead. The problem is that he brings this to a personal level with his fans, instead of keeping it on a business level. 

I understand if you want to make your fans happy, but there is a more responsible and appropriate way to interact with them. And if you say, “well, they are not happy with it, they like talking about no-nos and that kind of stuff, otherwise, they are not interested in me”, then tell them to screw off. Especially if they are underage and you are an adult, you should know better, and have some self-respect.

A good example of this is an incident of where I communicated with a youtuber named Aramin Audios. To bring you up to speed, there was another va youtuber, let’s call him Pink, who was accused of being a groomer to his girlfriend, but after researching a bit, me and my friends found that this is false and the people who accused him of so made the accusations out of anger and jumping to conclusions.

Now in response to this, Aramin wants to avoid this accusations to happen to him and he wants his community to be safer for his younger audience. That seems like a great thing to do, right? BUT, he thinks the best way to achieve that is to delete his discord server and build a new one, where it is reserved for patreons only, where he will discuss the nsfw content they want in their patreon requests. Me and my friend were confused by this because, in a way, it’s like a punishment for the underage fans for the youtubers’ irresponsible way of interacting with them. And the way he announced that he was gonna do this is as if he is putting the blame on Pink, this made us worried whether upset fans are gonna went after Pink or not after this.

However, we were more confused on his WAY of fixing this problem. I guess people will have a different opinion on this, but based on what Aramin wants and how he worded his request for his community, it seems like he was trying really hard to make it safe for the younger audience. So we asked him, if he was so worried about effecting kids with his provocative content, why not just age-restrict his videos? Of course, the answer is because he still wants to make a living and the content in his channel is still sfw, so it shouldn’t be age-restricted.

We also questioned on the new server he was planning to make because 1). from what I know, he is not that active in his old server anyways, so what’s the point? 2). from what he says, it will be no different, they will just discuss more r18 topics with his patrons and 3). this can be upsetting for fans who are JUST as loyal as the patreon fans. He explains that he thinks that it will be safer because minors lie in the internet, and it’s more secure when people make an account on patreon. True, maybe patreon is more strict but it is proven that people can still lie about their age in patreon. So me and my friend suggested to him, why not just age-restrict your videos or try to change your content a bit, because sfw that’s not automatically mean kid-friendly and from the way he was acting, this was his main worry.

The weird thing that happened was that my friend, let’s call her Lady, is a bit more closer to Aramin, because she was also a youtuber and he watches her stuff before. However, when Lady tried to explain how Aramin’s way of achieving all this didn’t make sense, the fans there agreed. But as soon as Aramin came, they did a complete 180. And of course, I’m not close with Aramin, right? there’s nothing wrong if he gets a bit defensive, but when me and Lady asked him the questions and give him suggestions for a better way to achieve he wants. He became demeaning to the point where he acts like he didn’t know who Lady is, and he treated her as if she is too young and too dumb to understand what he was saying. And they were roughly the same age.

Also, in that chat, some fans told me to scroll to reread what they were talking about, but the thing is I want to hear from Aramin’s word. However, after some exchange, it seems like Aramin doesn’t actually want his community to be minor-free, and he mostly blame that it’s the kids fault for lying about their age and parents are not monitoring they’re kids. So I asked him, “But you’re the one who wants to make your channel minor-free, this is based on what you want, so why won’t you yourself actually take the precautions?” and he responded with, “I’m not gonna entertain this, because you won’t scroll up, you obviously don’t care.” Good defense, Aramin.

So he may say he wants his community to be safer for minors, and he did this because of other youtubers who are exposed as groomers and predators, but he doesn’t actually practice what he preach. He just wants to be seen as taking action for the better.

But anyways, it seems like he didn’t wanna budge or give any good reason anytime soon, so me and Lady gave up. Lady told me after that conversation, he immediately deleted the server XD and the cherry on top is that he made a response to this in twitter and oh boy, there is so many things wrong with this tweet.

Where do I start with this?

First off, we’re talking about what he is doing with his server, so when he says he wants to protect minors from predators that could join his server, Aramin, that just brings the question, what kind of people you allow to reside in your server and how do you act with your fans? And it says a lot when you felt the NEED to make an r18 server with your fans.

Second, apparently Aramin was badly injured when I told him sfw does not mean kid-friendly. I wasn’t trying to make a ‘gotcha’ moment, Aramin, I was just stating something. But since you are so heavily affected by that, sorry I hurt your feelings I guess.

Third, I agree to scolding kids for lying about their age online and watching what they’re not suppose to watch. However, recommending that kids should just stay in Youtube Kids is just not right. Youtube Kids is specifically for kids who are at the age of 4-12, so a minor as young as 13-15 can watch your stuff. And it is also known that there’s still inappropriate content that is still posted in Youtube Kids, because they were fooled by the kid-friendly thumbnail and Youtube doesn’t actually check if the content is safe or not. And to just say, “well, they should just stay in Youtube Kids”, that’s an ignorant thing to say. Tell me guys, how young were you when you first watch or witness something that is not considered kid-friendly? Whether by accident or on purpose.

Fourth, what nice thing of him to say, “it is the parents’ fault for not monitoring what their children sees on the internet 24/7.” Yeah, it’s the parents fault, guys, it’s not like they have jobs or any house activities they have to do to take care of their kids. It’s their fault for not breathing down on their children’s neck every time they see a screen. And from him saying he doesn’t wanna stop his source of income because of the parents, Aramin, you’re basically saying, “I don’t support and I would never recommend minors watching my videos and I want my community to be safer for minors.....but I’ll still make money from minors watching my shit anyways, thank you very much.”

And finally, keep in mind, me and my friend did not bash nor insult Aramin while we were talking to him. We did not call him a predator, bad person, or whatever. But apparently something as simple as asking questions, even though you are confused for a good reason, counts as attacking or tearing someone down according to Aramin.

So yeah, overall, Aramin just comes off as a whiny brat, and this response just comes off as him going

“These people are confused, and they’re asking questions and giving me suggestions! It’s the worse thing ever, WHY CAN’T THEY SEE I’M A GOOD PERSON?”

Anyways, at the end of this post, I want to make this clear, whether your content is inappropriate or not, or your patreon is 18+ or not, I don’t care. The problem is if you actually interact with your fans in such a way. It’s asking for trouble and even if you don’t mean to interact with underage fans in such a way, it is still YOUR irresponsibility to act that way AT ALL with any age with your fans, who are also mostly complete strangers to you, especially when you are aware that minors might watch your stuff.

Just because you act in a certain way in your channel, does not mean you should act the same in person to your fans. We may saw Dakota Johnson’s boobs in Fifty Shades of Grey, but that wouldn’t mean it would be acceptable for her to flash her fans during a meet-and-greet.

Yes, it is the fault of the kids for lying about their age online or if they watch something they’re not suppose to, but in the end, YOU’RE the influencer. You are the one with the channel, you are the one who can fix what they watch or at the very least, make the situation a little more appropriate.

[tinysatansierra-blog]

Markiplier manor is toxic here’s why

So Markiplier manor (Markipliers official discord server) has gotten a surplus of new people in it, this happened a few weeks ago the manor itself though has been up for awhile. originally a members only server it was eventually opened up for everyone and yes there are alot of genuinely good people and the mods are alright but unfortunately its becoming a toxic environment. 

SO EDIT i have discussed with the mods that being said ... im keeping this up as a reminder of we can do better we can help people who are struggling through something instead of shutting them down we can listen to people who are being oppressed and bravely point out new media that only worsens that oppression and stigmatization and not just the mods who i was kind of harsh towards but who are human everyone as a community can do better and this is a large community think of the work we can do just doing the basics like boycotting problematic content and helping those who cry out for it who need it (and noticing and shutting down manipulative/toxic behaviors) ... i dont know if im going to go back to the manor yet tho im going to let this sit give it a week yall can agree or disagree but know that if you try to be an ass your going to get shut down and your feelings are going to get hurt 

lets start with the basics “triggering topics” triggering topics can be anything in particular but it generally means a topic that relates to another persons trauma. Now while it is important to acknowledge a persons trigger words and try to keep the conversation respectable ive also noticed people use it to shut down people who come on freaking out because their dealing with a stressful situation/something traumatic just happened. This has happened to me personally and to a friend with me it was about being pro choice and having to in short make that actual choice. i was discussing this in the bathroom because i (like anyone else who comes in with baggage) did not know about any pro choice discords at that moment and was afraid of being stigmatized or going onto a discord that says its a safe space only for it to be filled with trolls. Mark manor is labeled as a safe space and many people come on there looking for support with me no one told me that the topic was triggering to them (which apparently it was because a friend of theirs had to make the choice not her herself think what you will) they just went to a mod early on when i just found the server as a member a friend (who i wont name) had gotten.... assaulted majority of her werent online and as someone who has been there and yes when she told me it did trigger my own trauma she needed moral support... the mod shut her down and deleted her comments and didnt give her a pointer to any other discord where she could discuss the topic openly and get moral support and be pointed to resources (it actually took me ten minutes to find and confirm a lgbtq therapy chat earlier this year for another individual discussing mental health) this was before i had gotten on for that day but i noticed those messages and i contacted her when she told me what was up yea it triggered my memories and its not fun but I FUCKING HELPED HER i made sure she went to the police to atleast file a statement (while the police dont always help it is good to have it on file) i even made her a plush and shipped it out to her and i would do it again and again because its not good to basically tell another person to shut up because it triggers others not without atleast trying to help them find another fucking place and making sure their actually ok and in a physical safe place  next is them claiming the manor is a “safe space” a safe space is by definition  “ a place or environment in which a person or category of people can feel confident that they will not be exposed to discrimination, criticism, harassment, or any other emotional or physical harm.” you would also think that the manor would be a safe space in the fact that marginalized and oppressed groups of people would be able to point out problematic content and have an open and free discussion about it and how it makes them uncomfortable. especially people of lgbtq community which alot of people in that chat are. yesterday (and this was what caused me to officially turn away from the server) in the patio (which is the members only chat) a Transgender individual pointed out the problematic content that is huniepop and how it fetishizes trans people as well as other minorities now this game i hear tries to make itself out as a “parody” .... its not its a sexual dating sim what would make it a parody is if sex noises were replaced with donkey sounds and the lewd pictures were replaced with poorly drawn doodles of tits or what have you its a game for incels marks hilarious when he plays it because he doesnt take the game seriously my issue isnt with him its with the developer. and if you did not know (which apparently people dont) the character poli is described as “a girl with a dick” the individual pointed this out because they felt like it dehumanizes them and paints them as nothing more than a fetish... and also apparently you can “choose” is poli is trans which kind of gives off the message that people can ignore trans peoples identity if it makes them uncomfortable... or if they dont sexualize them. and the muslim community is more or less in the same boat i come from the bible belt in usa im not muslim i am not trans but i do have a reason for standing with both and i will get to that in a bit so i was raised in a christian household in a christian setting like muslim women were basically told we cannot have sex and any sexual thought is sinful and we will be punished blah blah blah your even more closeted if your gay or bi because then you can face ... violence that being said to make the woman from the middle east hyper sexual like they did is kind of shitty even for a incel pleasing sex game. the individual who thought it would be ok to discuss this in the server because its labeled as a safe space and is generally “lgbtq” friendly thus believing he would have people agree and discuss ... was unceremoniously shut down by their peers and a mod was notified this person was not hostile maybe a bit frustrated because he wanted to talk about it and thought he would have this genuinely helpful conversation and people would listen and spread the word because to have problematic content be popular can isolate the oppressed group even more so WHEN NO ONE WANTS TO LISTEN TO THEM. if a group of marginalized people notice something problematic with content and you claim to be an ally of said group then you need to acknowledge and support what they say. they told him to go to twitter where he could potentially be bullied and written off ... because again its an INCEL PLEASING SEX GAME.(which means incels if you ever dealt with them will go and say anything to justify the game even using slurs and bullying) and to put the icing on the cake to change the topic they brought up robin ... i actually dont know who robin is as i dont really focus much on youtube creators personal stuff (it feels off for me to not personally know an individual but know their personal stuff without having actually talking to them its weird i know its a thing i have in my head) but apparently they recently came out as female and good for them im super proud of him and the patio members were discussing how they were proud of him as well for beginning to wear makeup and making themselves more feminine which would be great if they werent trying so hard to shut down the trans male who was trying to spread awareness on problematic stuff .... something he pointed out ... and something they gaslighted and said he was being hostile. really its almost as if they only care about trans issues when its someone famous discussing them  so what can we possibly do about huniepop being transphobic and the answer is very easy BOYCOTT IT like... yall were up in arms and boycotted jk rowling with snap and a turn do we only cancel the old and ugly? do we only cancel those who we dont think is funny? mark is not at fault he probably doesnt realize it and any comments made on the issue are talked down upon or drowned amongst other comments im not saying to cancel him im saying to cancel the game HARD. ignore the posts bitch at the dev demand refunds for your game. like consumers have infinitely more power than corps want to admit.  so you basically have a community that claims to be a safe space but only if you want to talk about sunshine and rainbows and its highly hypocritical of them to claim safety.  another thing is emotionally abusive/manipulative people hide in the server and the mods dont ever seem to acknowledge it. i cannot tell you how many times ive gotten into arguments with people who seems nice then turn into assholes then claim to be the victim when i or others go off on them. if you recognize my name you know i dont stand down when it comes to having a snarky or rude comment thrown at me if your going to be an ass were fighting i dont care how nice you seemed beforehand and you dont get to call a mod just because i actually stood up for myself or others sorry not sorry dont be a bitch nuff said.  now why would i care so much about problematic content? why would i care and stand by the transgender and muslim people (aside from being ya know... an actual ally and not someone who claims it for sympathy and brownie points?) its because i am autistic i am also able to function well on my own but there is a movie created by the famous singer sia it is called music it is a movie frowned upon by the autisitic community because infantizes and dehumanizes non verbal autistic people i am fortunate and unfortunate in not having to deal with much stigma unfortunate because i wasnt diagnosed until i was 17 alot of answers about my behavior could have been answered if i had been diagnosed earlier but considering society loves the quiet timid female and i functioned “well” for neurotypicals i was ignored. so yea you bet your ass im standing with them and raising awareness about huniepop and their was this one person when i mentioned this point i cant remember there name nor to do i give a shit about them because when i mentioned how autistic people ... how i was in the same boat with music by sia (again i advise that no one target the actress who was under contract target sia and please boycott her so she knows she cant get brownie points or money for a movie that stigmatizes who she claims she wants to “help” (*cough* profit off of *cough cough*) and only serves as a feel good movie for neurotypicals and ignorant people)  they said “i heard people who hated the movie i heard people who found it alright people are ALLOWED to like problematic content” ... and like ... does anyone else see the problem here? its not hard at all to boycott celebrities for making content  and im going to repeat this point  IF A GROUP OF MARGINALIZED, STIGMITIZED AND OPPRESSED PEOPLE CALL OUT SOMETHING FOR BEING PROBLEMATIC AND YOU CLAIM TO BE AN ALLY YOU FUCKING LISTEN TO THEM AND DONT SHUT THEM DOWN I DONT GIVE A SHIT YOU DONT HAVE A FUCKING EXCUSE. if you cant bring yourself to boycott a piece of media and replace it with the infinitely more suitable forms that supports the group you claim to be for your not an ally your a fucking hypocrite  and that is why i left markiplier manor i am still a youtube special ... thingy member and i will continue to be a member to support mark i want people to overall listen to those who speak up against a creator and a piece of media and listen to us all no matter how “good” something seems. .. also there is a video called listen it was created by nonverbal autistic people  and communicationFIRST a group that sia apparently communicated with for her movie... and then ignored  https://youtu.be/H7dca7U7GI8

[ingayderzim]

not to be that person who asks a googleable question but wtf is hazbin hotel bc i googled it and the only “critical” thing i could find was a typo-ridden article of someone saying it has good animation and its haters are stupid. i was able to glean what it is/what it’s about but idk about the discourse lmao

Im actually so glad u asked this. Here's the lowdown, this is my definitive answer to hazbin shit from here on out, unless new info comes about of course.

Hazbin hotel is an independent cartoon by vivziepop. Most people (that ive seen) have agreed that the pilot of the show really isnt that great but the reason it has so many fans is bc of the entertaining livestreams, massive amounts of canon content produced (she has had these characters for years), unique art style, and the characters. (Ass ugly but unique.)

Its haters are totally justified bc of some of the "controversial" (read: bad) things vivziepop has done. Here's the conclusion that my friends and classmates (several of whom are Black, one Hispanic woman, and one trans woman...nellie if ur reading this i 💜 u) and i came to after discussing this stuff. I am NOT saying "well my black/trans friend said it's ok so i dont have to think about it!" this is based on a few different conversations that my friends and i have had about this topic so what im saying is that my opinion was formed by talking about this situation with multiple people affected by the controversy.

One controversial thing is a drawing u can easily find on google (called beastiality.jpg i believe?) It's a cropped (chest and up, but hes obv naked) drawing of vivziepops character, drawn by vivziepop, moaning, with a snake around him. The character is 17. Many people have interpreted this as child porn. I dont think this image is pornographic, i think it's a stupid joke (it was even tagged as a joke iirc) and completely inappropriate but since it's 8 years old on top of not being porn, i think it's just an example of a dumb drawing. That being said, i would NEVER argue that someone who is uncomfortable w the drawing (im uncomfortable with it! It's gross just not porn) or considers it porn is wrong. They are entitled to that opinion and i would never expose them to vivziepops work or talk about her stuff around them if they expressed to me that they disliked the image.

Another thing is that she drew a doodle of two racist TERFs. This is the one where my friends of color, my friends who are black, and my friends who are trans women took the lead. I sat back for this part and here's their and my opinion on this after talking about it and verbally going through this whole situation.

She was following these women (who had done blackface and stuff) and drew art of them. The art was a "quick doodle" that she did apologize for and she said she didn't realize the extent of their beliefs. She knew they werent great but hadnt consumed much of their content in depth. I believe her bc while ive never followed anyone as bad, ive certainly followed some pieces of shit and didnt notice for months simply bc im not online all the time and bc of the volume of people i follow, combined with the non chronological algorithms lately.

At the risk of screwing myself, im going to admit that there was about a year or so of my life where i enjoyed The Amazing Atheist. I was even subbed to him. I was a nonbinary lesbian (2 things he cant stand lmaoo) in catholic school and therefore i strictly watched his videos about theological stuff since thats what was frustrating me at the time. I had no clue the type of evil racist, transphobic, homophobic (yes ik hes bi), misogynistic things he thought, said, and did, bc i didnt watch those videos. I literally only watched select theological ones that could be of use to me while edgily debating my teachers (sorry mrs macdougal but u had it coming). I was about 15 at the time and im 19 now. Im sorry to everyone i hurt by ever having supported him. I had one of his quotes written in the inside of my religion notebook in high school. I regretted it and ripped the page out the moment i discovered the truth about him. I cant stress enough how much I HATE HIM. Thats an example of what i think happened here tho.

One of my friends who is a trans woman said (paraphrasing) "i think the worst thing shes done is that terf art but i believe the apology especially bc it was a quick drawing."

That being said, i would NEVER argue with someone who wanted nothing to do w vivziepop bc of this. That's their right. 100%. I would never expose them to her work after that.

The last thing i remember is something about a pedophilic couple in a comic but i heard it was a 17 year old and a 19 year old. Im 19 and if one of my peers did that i wouldnt say pedophile but id say ur a fucking weirdo, BUT, the kids were fake and being written by an adult so i can totally see her thinking that age gap is much less of a big deal than it really is. Like she forgot what it's like at this age. Idk how true any of that part is tho, i heard that info entirely secondhand.

Another thing to do with racism is that there's a joke within the show where one character says to the other

"don't get your taco in a twist"

"Was that supposed to be racist or sexist?"

"Whichever one pisses you off more"

I thought that was gross but one of my friends pointed out that vivziepop is of el salvadorian descent so that's her business. Like if i made a lesbian joke of equal or greater offensiveness than that and someone tried to call me lesbophobic over it id be like "that's literally my territory."

Oh speaking of which that character's name is vaggie and shes a lesbian but it's not pronounced w the same G you'd hear in "vagina." Vivziepop seems to name characters weirdly (like how in helluva boss theres a guy named blitzo and the o is silent) so maybe it's a pussy joke but i have no idea.

The animation was.................better than i could do, i wanna say the faces and gestures were good but god i remember there was a part with a car and my gf had to pause so i could laugh my ass off at it. I wouldn't describe the animation as a highlight but i liked the style in motion i thought it was a fun change. Vivziepops style is not appealing imo but i appreciate it as an art student and as someone whose friends all like she ra and steven universe where every character looks the goddamn motherfucking same, and while its chaotic and i dont care for it, the style actually works way better in motion than you'd think.

A good rule that i def use is to assume hazbin fans are guilty until proven innocent. If someone says they dont care about the discourse surrounding it and like it no matter what, RUN! They would support the show even if the creator was in fact a pedophile, or had done the blackface/was a terf herself! They probably support some horrible ppl and are probably "anti antis." A lot of them are minors tho so i'd say block and move on.

So, do i like it or not? Im an art student and all my friends like it so while i didnt think it was funny, i do fuck with it. At the convention this weekend my friends and i had a convo that led to me drawing an ahego hoodie where the faces were angel dust (a character's) face. It was a joke that i could make a killing by selling that in a booth at a con.

Theres really nothing compelling about the show but my friends like it so i join in on their conversations, and i do have a soft spot for angel dust bc he's like a worse, less amazing and gorgeous version of one of my characters, Candy, the love of my life.

A lot of people say the show was edgy/offensive and maybe im just desensitized but besides the taco thing i didnt pick up on that whatsoever??? The Archer episode "Swiss Miss" is worse than helluva boss and hazbin combined and even archer isn't offensive.

Im probably not aware of all the "discourse" (aka people being reasonably uncomfortable by weird and bad shit this random woman has done, and other ppl saying their opinions are wrong when it's literally just an opinion about a show) so if anything she's done isnt included in here it's not to defend vivziepop, this is genuinely all i know. I wouldnt describe myself as a fan of hers.

[gaslightgatekeepgodot]

A (sizeable) rant/essay concerning my experiences in the Tumblr JJBA fandom.

None of you asked to hear this, but I’m getting pretty pissed off at some people in particular (I will not name names, though I may heavily implicate some people) and it’s finally started to kinda spill over. So I’m letting it spill; take it or leave it.

I’m... Fairly irate at the moment, and writing out my feelings does tend to help me calm down in situations like this, so if I was going to put this anywhere the best place for it is probably on the public internet. Again, take it or leave it: this is the internet, you don’t have to interact with me if this concerns you or your ideals. Just click that handy little block button on my profile and you never have to see little Nat mouthing off again.

If you want me to summarise (I know not everyone wants/is able to read a fluffed-up pillar of text) or explain my reasoning behind anything I’ve said below the cut, feel free to direct message me here or on Discord @nati bati yi#1462. Once I get this off my chest I’ll be more than willing to chat to people about it. <3

(Before I say anything else, this is not intended to be a callout in any way, shape or form. I don’t mention the specific names of anybody, and the actions I do mention here will only point to specific people if you know them too. Anyone on the outside should have zero idea of who anyone I bring up is; I do not want anyone to get harassed over this, and I very much do not want to start drama - that’s what inspired me to go off and write this hunk of garbage in the first place. I’m just... Sick to death of the fandom as a whole.)

Anyway. Here we go.

From what I’ve been able to tell, being in this fandom for just under a year now, there are two main halves to it: the gay-hating, stale-meme-parroting dudebro side, who seem to mostly congregate around YouTube and Reddit, and... Whatever the side based on Tumblr (and probably now Twitter) is. I don’t spend a lot of time on Reddit, so naturally I’ve been more exposed to the Tumblr side of the fandom, and after experiencing the ideals some people here want to force on other people I’ve come to the conclusion I’d almost rather be immersed in the bigoted dudebro side. And I say this as an ace-spec/gay trans man.

I’ll start with the blocklist.

I think most of us on Tumblr came to the conclusion that the blocklist was utter bullshit, but I did see a few people in a Discord server I have since left (I will expand on this later) defending the reasoning behind some ships being on there, citing the fact they had been abused in a relationship with a similar age gap. I can definitely see why that would bother a person, and I do not want to erase the fact that people have been and will be abused in similar relationships, but you can’t project your singular experience onto every fictional, non-canon character relationship and every person who ships it. For one, not every relationship is going to turn out the same just because it meets this one criteria of “the age gap is too big”, and, also, you don’t have to write fiction to totally reflect reality. You are in full creative control. Maybe if the characters were real people they wouldn’t click, but if you’re drawing a picture or writing a fanfic you don’t have to go along with that. You can write them so that they’re good to each other, while still keeping it in character. Araki has said that Jotaro and Kakyoin’s personalities don’t work together very well, and that they wouldn’t have become friends or even spoken to each other if Jotaro wasn’t a Stand user... But Jotaro/Kakyoin just happens to be the most-written about JJBA ship on AO3. Me? I love Jotakak. It’s about the only thing I do ship. And I’ve read some quite frankly amazing fanfiction where the two boys are paired and they work together, and it’s still very much in character. Of course, I’m very much against loli/shota content or content depicting characters who don’t look very old- if someone drew Koichi in a sexual situation I would be pissed as all hell, but I don’t have to engage with that content any further. I can just filter out the tag/block the OP and move on. You don’t need to make a fuss and tell/imply to people that they are paedophilic for enjoying well-written content where a 17-year-old is in a healthy relationship with a 22-year-old, platonic or otherwise.

My second point brings in some of the things I’ve learned while studying media this past year. My main point here: not everyone in an audience is the same. There is a reason differential decoding and the uses and gratifications theory exist. The uses and gratifications theory states, at its most basic, that the audience of a media text is active, not passive; i.e. they are not just absorbing every piece of data thrown at them by the text they are consuming, and they are consuming different media to satisfy a need- for JJBA, that need could be entertainment, escapism, identifying with a character similar to yourself or to give you something to talk about with your friends. Differential decoding arises when someone consuming a piece of the media does not entirely go along with the creator’s preferred reading of it- an example might be how a sizeable amount of people enjoy villainous or “disgusting” characters such as Dio, Cioccolata, Stroheim or Melone, when they were clearly written in canon to be abhorrent, unlikable people for varying reasons. I can also say that, because the audience is active, and consume media based on their personal needs, that somebody writing fanfic of a ship you don’t like isn’t going to make incest or paedophilia more socially acceptable. I don’t consume that content, because I don’t feel the need to. Sure, real paedos might, but they’re a minority. Just because a couple hundred people or so read a fanfic on the free web where a grown adult does the dirty with a little kid, doesn’t mean to say everyone in the world will suddenly start thinking it’s ok. Mention it to any sane person in real life and they will not like that idea any more than you do.

And my third point is more a personal thing than anything else, but there is a community I used to be part of (and was part of almost from the beginning) where I didn’t feel welcome because of people causing drama over things like what I mentioned above. I started multiple discourses entirely by accident by saying I didn’t understand why everyone though X ship was horribly problematic and worth getting mad at people over. I still don’t feel like anyone deserves to be harassed over characters and ships they enjoy, but that doesn’t mean to say I support all of it. Along with generally feeling ignored by a lot of the moderators of that server, as well as their friends, I was just sick to death of how they seemed to single out some certain people to say, “hey, don’t do this” when other people seemed exempt. I was verbally warned for posting innuendos in a general chat (but it’s not like I could anywhere else on the server, because I’m not 18 yet), but at least once every day I would see two people flirting in-character in whatever channel they happened to meet in, and it never seemed to be in a roleplay channel- I couldn’t see into NSFW to check if they did it there too, but the fact it would leak out into gen concerned me. They would throw innuendo after innuendo at each other, and they never seemed to stop, or be told to stop. Yes, I could have messaged the moderators to say it made me uncomfy, but one of them was a moderator themselves, so I felt a little out my element doing so. 

Another thing that bothered me is when I tried to join an offshoot of that server for kin, and the admin - I assume - of said offshoot server messaged me (with some other conversation concerning it in between) that, despite the fact I only wanted in to help me figure out what it meant to me, I wasn’t allowed in because somebody was uncomfy with doubles. I completely understand that, but I had spoken to the only person it could have been (I wasn’t given a name, but it wasn’t difficult to figure out who it was) multiple times about that character and how similar we were- hell, we had even roleplayed together as doubles of that character and no problems were ever expressed to me. If anything it seemed like we left off in a spot we could have carried on from later. It might not have been intended that way, but being told I wasn’t allowed in there made me feel excluded from the community nonetheless, especially because I’d had a few people tell me the night before that they wanted more people in there and that I’d be totally welcome. I was also told, before any of this happened, that the same person blocked a friend of mine in another server for going on a small rant about how they didn’t like the way Josuke acted in the episode where he plays dice with Rohan and ends up burning his house down, because they kin Josuke..? At least, that’s what was relayed to me.

But, hey ho, it’s all behind me now. I won’t lie; I don’t really plan on ever going back. I don’t want to engage anymore, because it makes me uncomfortable and anxious thinking about it, so I most likely will unfollow most (if not all) of the blogs pertaining to that community tonight. I do have a few people still there who I miss speaking to, but I’ve DM’d all of them on Discord at least once since I’ve left and talked to them about either how I miss them or something entirely unrelated to the server. I’d like to talk more with them, but DMs are always awkward for me to begin with... I have a feeling they might not want to talk after reading this, and I think I’m ready to accept that? Might be difficult not being able to scream about fanfic as much, but I won’t impose on anyone if my presence makes them uncomfy. I don’t want to be that guy.

I’ll say it again: now that I’ve got this off my chest and subsequently calmed down a lot, I’m more than willing to talk about any of it. Just shoot me a message on Discord and I’ll reply when I’m able and feeling up to talking about it again. For now I’m probably just going to go back to pissing about on Flight Rising or play Smash or something

[keith-against-sheith]

“antis harass shippers all the time”

ok let’s just say that’s true and that you’re not conflating our general vocal criticism with harassment.

the problem is when any antis step out of line, we call it out. we spread posts about not sending death threats and shit. we ask you guys to tell us who harasses you but never hear back from you.

but when shit comes from your side, all we get is radio silence from you guys. you think shippers are justified in attacking our side because you already see us as default bullies just for being angry about pedophilia apologism. when our side gets harassed or sent triggering content you’re quick to say “well you started it, this wouldn’t happen if you all weren’t toxic” lol just stop lying and admit you don’t actually give a shit about harassment or the minors who are harassed on this side, you only care about it when you can use it as a derailing argument to shut any conversation down.

remember when a shaladin pretended to be an anti on twitter to get buddy buddy with antis? (with antis who were minors)? but when they got caught and were exposed with an ip address—which is public information and was censored anyway—the only issue you guys had was Oh no the evil antis doxxed an innocent shipper!!! yeah fuck off

and you especially don’t acknowledge the pedophiles that exist and thrive in your shipping circles—remember when that one guy lied about his age to date a minor AND called a pedophile defense firm to check if child erotica was legal? lol no backlash form the shaladin community, only support and chatter about how the ship war was finally over.

and now when an adult woman with a huge following and influence attacks a minor because she thinks he’s lying (he wasn’t) and calls him a motherfucker for being uncomfortable with her 22 year old ass joking about pedophilic ships and liking homophobic/sexual comments towards a teen you guys rush to defend and coddle her. a minor was harassed and bullied into deleting by a shit ton of people from your community all because he had an issue with bex, and she couldn’t act like a fucking adult.

this shit is consistent with you guys. whenever your side gets into shit you twist it into something you can blame on us just so you can continue shipping teenagers with a grown adult. i would ask you guys to think critically about the kind of behavior your shipping rhetoric enables, but from what we’ve seen that’s impossible. so congrats on being the bronies of the fandom i guess. 

[frukheaven]

Rant of the day: I can’t FUCKING BELIEVE that there is a FUCKING ANTI on the hetalia fandom making a WHOLE FUCKING BLOG to list “bad blogs”

Before starting: in absolute NO CIRCUNSTANCE this is a motive to go there and harass them in ANY WAY. If you harass someone, no matter the reason, you are a terrible human being and I’m disgusted by you.

*very deep and tired sigh*

I am TIRED.

SO FUCKING TIRED of dealing with antis bullshit on the Voltron fandom. I am tired of seeing they harass people, I am tired of seing their shit on the tags I like, but, mostly: I AM TIRED OF SEEING THEIR INCORRECT AND FAILED LOGIC ALL OVER THE PLACE.

They keep claiming over and over again that incest ships (even self-cest), pedophilia ships and abusive/toxic ships means that whoever ship those are inherently endorsing those things in real life and that those shippers are inherently bad people. They say “fiction afects reality” and think that they are the paladins of truth and justice and protectors of children/minors. 

*very deep and annoyed sigh*

First of all, bitch, YES, MOTHERFUCKER, WE KNOW THAT FICTION AFFECT REALITY. That is why people demand representation in media and that is why people demand better media.

HOWEVER, FICTION DOESN’T AFFECT REALITY IN A “MONKEY SEE, MONKEY DO” WAY!!!!!!!

They keep claiming “oh, children will see incest/pedophilia/abuse/rape in fandom and they will think that it is ok in real life”

BITCH, NO!

I don’t know how these naive people were raised, but most MOST PARENTS THAT I KNOW, MOST PARENTS OF OTHER SHIPPERS HAD ALREADY TAUGHT THEM THAT THOSE ARE WRONG BEFORE WE GET INTO THE INTERNET. Dear antis, If YOUR PARENTS failed to educate you that incest/pedophilia/abuse/rape is wrong, that is, honestly, YOUR FUCKING PROBLEM! This is the internet and I ain’t your mama. I’m not here to shelter people against all and every heavy content. 

I’m on the internet and on fandom since I was 11/12 (I don’t remember when).  I basically raised myself in fandom and I learned about sex and sexuality in fandom firstly. And even there I WASN’T STUPID ENOUGH TO THINK THAT INCEST/PEDOPHILIA/ABUSE WAS COOL AND OK IN REAL LIFE! My first mlm ship was between a 15 yo and a 30 yo. I shipped it, I liked it AND I, WITH 12/13 YEARS OLD KNEW, WITHOUT A SHITTY ANTI TELLING ME THAT, THAT THAT WASN’T OK IN REAL LIFE!

Antis treat people, especially minors, as if they were stupid.  They treat fiction as if it was a case of “monkey see, monkey do” when that is hardly the case.

People who were socialized correctly WILL NOT EVER THINK THAT THAT IS OK IN REAL LIFE!

Antis treat people as if it was sinful and heinous to like heavy or more problematic stuff/ships.

BITCH, NO!

PSYCHOLOGISTS ALL OVER THE GLOBE HAD ALREADY PROVEN THAT IT IS PART OF THE HUMAN NATURE TO BE ATTRACTED TO EDGE THEMES!

Meaning that it is ok to like reading/seeing about those kind of things. IT IS NORMAL! (also, before someone asks: yes, it is also ok not to like it. Both are part of the human nature, and one is not more right or wrong than the other. They are just part of humanity. They just are. Period).

IF ALL THE PROFESSIONALS SAYS THAT IT IS OK, WHY DO YOU THINK YOUR SORRY ASS KNOW MORE ABOUT THE SUBJECT THAN THEY DO? YOU ARE NOT GOD, MOTHERFUCKER!

Of course, that there is a huge “but” on that.

It is ok to like those kind of stuff, BUT PEOPLE HAVE TO TAG THAT CORRECTLY. PEOPLE HAVE TO PUT ALL THE WARNINGS SO PEOPLE CAN EITHER EXPLORE THEIR HEAVY SUBJECT OF INTEREST OR THEY CAN AVOID/BLACKLIST IT. 

As I said, I’m in fandom since I was 11/12. I’ve seen/read a lot of shit during those 14/13 years that I’m in this internet life. A lot of shit. A LOT OF SHIT. A LOT OF SHIT! And every single fucking time I seen/read some shit, I WAS THE ONE WHO ACTIVELLY CLICKED ON IT.I CHOOSE TO DO THAT. I’ll never forget about the time when I was starting on the hetalia fandom and I used to read UsUk stuff (yeah, a long time ago, in a galaxy far away...) that I read some heavy fanfics from the same author, about rape, torture and brainwashing (until this day, I’ll never forget that author’s name and I’ll pronounce it just like Timmy Turner’s dad (from Fairy Godparents) pronounce “Dinkleberg”). That stuff REALLY messed up with my head for a few weeks. HOWEVER, The author PUT ALL THE WARNINGS.  I had ALREADY read some of their stuff (and I was grossed out about it) AND I STILL CHOSE TO CLICK ON IT!

You see, that is how the internet works: ONE CHOOSES TO SEE OR NOT!

SO THERE IS NO REASON TO TRY TO POLICE PEOPLE WHO DOES THAT! IT IS NOT WRONG AND PEOPLE CAN DO WHATEVER THEY WANT!!! (with proper tags and proper warnings, of course)

One last fallacy that the antis LOVE to say is that “adults can use pedo/abuse/incest shipt to groom young children and abuse them uwu”

BITCH, NO!

DO YOU REALLY THINK THAT CSA STARTED TO HAPPEN ONLY AFTER THE TELEVISION AND THE INTERNET WAS INVENTED?

DON’T BE STUPID, STUPID!

Predators had existed since the beginning of humanity. In Rome, for example, there were parties where the guests were offered little children (5 to 12 yo) FOR THEM TO RAPE. 

ARE YOU SERIOUSLY GOING TO BLAME THAT ON THE INTERNET?

Again: if antis parents failed to show them that incest/pedophilia/abuse/rape is wrong, it is hardly my or anyone in the internet job to teach that to antis. 

Normal minors, children that already know (because their mamas raised no fools) that incest/pedophilia/abuse/rape is wrong, will see problematic content and either avoid it (and learn how to manage their own internet experience) or will explore it (again: there is nothing wrong in liking heavy content, and people start developing their sexuality and their interests during puberty, between 11 to 19 yo. And NO, SEEING/READING ABOUT PEDOPHILIC SHIPS WON’T MAKE PEOPLE PEDOPHILES. THIS IS NOT “MONKEY SEE MONKEY DO”!!!! THAT JUST MEANS THAT THOSE PEOPLE WILL LIKE THAT KIND OF CONTENT)

Normal people (most of the people except antis) don’t need antis to tell them what is right and what is wrong. 

Normal minors WON’T BE GROOMED WITH PEDO/ABUSE/INCEST CONTENT!!!!

You know with what kind of media the predators groom children?  With SFW work!!!! With PG works!!!!! WITH STUFF THAT ARE CUTESY AND SWEET AND NOT PROBLEMATIC AT ALL!

For fucks sake: Predators WANT CHILDREN/MINORS TO THINK THEY ARE THE GOOD GUYS! THEY ARE NOT GOING TO SHOW THEM PEDO/ABUSE/INCEST STUFF!!!!

Of course, to all rule there is a counter example. Yes, I’ve already read about cases of people who were in fact groomed and that their abuser used pedo/abuse/incest ships to try to justify it.  Yes, I’ve already read about “the lolita effect” in Japan about predators using that kind of ships to justify their actions. HOWEVER: 1) That is not the rule (Japan has a little more problems with this part, but it is not my place, as a westerner, to lecture them without more information on the topic and on their culture) 2) That is bad usage of media and it could happen with ANY MEDIA. Again, another anedoct of my life: I’ve met a girl a few years ago (I was 18 and she was 19) who had been groomed when she was 12 with pokemon. Yes, POKEMON. ARE ANTIS GOING TO BLAME POKEMON FOR SHE BEING GROOMED? ARE THEY? I don’t think so. (She was all right, by the way. She told her mom who called the cops. I think they arrested the guy. Yikes. At least she got more careful on the internet after that).

ANY MEDIA CAN BE USED TO GROOM CHILDREN/MINORS IN ANY WAY!!!! PROBLEMATIC SHIPS BEING USED FOR THIS IS THE EXCEPTION, NOT THE RULE!

Do I like pedo ships? Hell No! Do I like incest ships? Hell No! DO I like rape ship? ...well, I had to be guilty of something, I guess... Do I like abuse ships? Hell No! BUT THAT DOESN’T MAKE ME HAVE THE RIGHT TO CENSOR OTHER PEOPLE FOR FUCK’S SAKE!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH *screaming to the void with anger*

Righ, ok. 

If the fandom is so worried about predators and all, what can we effectively do?

I’m glad you asked!

1) TALK We have to talk about our inner problems (like some fetization of mlm ships that fandons in general still have) AND we have to discuss these subjects between ourselve. Again, anedocte of my life: I was 15 and I still shipped that 15/30 yo ship (the same ship). I met online other people who shipped it, including a new shipper, younger than us (ages between 16 to 12, the 12 was the new shipper). We talked with the new shipper about how we loved our ship, of course, but how that would be gross in real life. The new shipper was a little dazzled with the fantasie of an older man liking them (just like I had been when I was 12/13) like it happened on the ship. So we the older shippers talked with them about how that doens’t happen in real life like that and how if an older man showed interests on her that would be really messed up. She got a little annoyed with us in the beginning (since she already knew that), but in the end she knew a little bit more about how to spot a predator (since we were talking about what we knew on the subject). That is just one example of my life, but I think many other people out in the internet have other nice examples. That is, in my opinion, the most powerful weapon against abuse and predators: information and support. Instead of censoring a “bad ship” and cocooning the new shipper in a bubble of ignorance, we talked about it with her and she learn something important for her life. That is what anyone can do.

2) REPORT REAL RAPIST/PEDOPHILES If you can, do it.  If you can call the cops, even better. That is how we can help. That is what antis don’t do. Recently on the Voltron fandom, someone showed screenshots of an anti discord chat where it was posted a link to a rapist blog on tumblr with the caption “PLEASE REPORT THIS FUCKER”.  The antis mocked that.  They did nothing. Then, when the conversation leaked, they acused the person that sent the link of exposing them to troubling content (as if the person had sent the link just to rile them up and not to get help reporting the motherfucker). aNTIS aRE uSELESS. i rEST mY cASE

3) DONATE TO INSTITUTIONS THAT HELP CSA VICTIMS/SURVIVORS If you have the money, of course. Since I am broke 99% of the time, I can only reblog stuff and pray for the best, but if you have some money and you want to help that is a good oportunity. There are also other ways to the fandom to help too! A good example on the Voltron fandom was the Sheith Zine, that donated all the profits to one of those institutions (I can’t remember which now)

TL,DR: FICTION DOESN’T AFFECT REALITY IN A “MONKEY SEE, MONKEY DO” WAY, PEOPLE WHO WERE SOCIALIZED CORRECTLY WILL NEVER THINK THAT THOSE KIND OF SHIPS ARE OK IN REAL LIFE, THERE IS NO REASON TO POLICE WHAT PEOPLE SHIP BECAUSE IT IS ALL FINE (IF THEY USE THE PROPER TAGS AND WARNINGS, OF COURSE), ANY MEDIA (ESPECIALLY NON-PROBLEMATIC) CAN BE USED TO GROOM CHILDREN/MINORS (PEDO SHIPS BEING USED TO THAT IS THE EXCEPTION), ANTIS ARE A DISGRACE WHO DO NOTHING EFFECTIVE TO HELP PEOPLE AND THERE ARE WAYS TO HELP PEOPLE AGAINST ABUSE THAT ARE __NOT__ CENSORING SHIPS

AND NO, DEBORAH, I’M NOT GOING TO PUT THIS ALL UNDER A “READ MORE” THIS TIME AND I’M NOT GOING TO STOP SCREAMING I’M PISSED

Last note: if you want to talk about it, I’m really more civil than this in one-one conversations. As long as you keep the respect (and sarcasm is still considered a disrespect in this blog), I’ll keep the respect and won’t scream (maybe put stuff in bold for emphasis, but that is it)