#fan tl vs the official one (help now my head hurts)

[the-nysh]

Meanwhile Caleb's had a stroke trying to localize Camie's internet slang in all these official footnotes:

this translation makes me want to die but i can't deny that hawks being called an s-tier twink made me laugh

[slipscout]

people kept saying that jello joked about trans people being hermaphrodite 5 years ago, is any of that true? i saw someone in the notes talking about it on the original post. i thought you would probably know

Before we begin my computer has witnessed a power outage AND an error code within 5 minutes and WOW have I never felt the need to scream more in my life. 

Let me know if anything needs to be clarified/expanded on or is incorrect and needs to be fixed!

Onto the discourse!

The Welcome to Tumblr video was created January 2014, posted onto Jello’s official yt channel. I suggest you watch it before proceeding. Long post ahead!

Alright! The quote in question, our main suspect!

2:32-2:52

Oh, you’re back! Ah, I see you’ve added something to your facade! (Squeaky toy SFX showcasing a green sticky note with a Y, labelled ‘Vagina’ and underneath, ‘I am a hermaphrodite’). A vagina on a man is a good start, but you can’t go around calling yourself a ‘hermaphrodite’. That’s racist. What you need is a politically correct name for yourself that you can use to yell at people with. You’re not a ‘hermaphrodite’, you’re vagin-abled.

Lets bounce right into it.

A hermaphrodite is where an animal has both sex characteristics. Notably, the clownfish is a sequential hermaphrodite that changes from male to female when needed. Hermaphrodite is a pejorative, outdated term to describe intersex folks.

Intersex is where humans have both sex characteristics, internally and externally. Some people go through their lives never knowing they’re intersex. It’s full of genetics and all that jazz, and I’m not nearly qualified to talk about this, so I suggest you head over to the ISNA to learn more about it.

Anyway, the video is a satirical piece that is supposed to make fun of ‘SJW’s and the radical feminism/inclusionism of passive-aggressive folks on 2014 tumblr. I wasn’t around for that, so I can only witness this post-happening.

SO! Trans people and intersex. There’s a lot of differences here, and better definitions and questions on ISNA. I’ll try to keep it simple:

Trans folks are, for the most part(I’ll get to that in a moment), physically aligned with their assigned gender at birth. However, they experience doubt and dysphoria over that. Its a mind vs body type.

Intersex folks are not aligned with their assigned gender at birth!

Both can use surgery/testosterone/estrogen to align themselves as they please, which is why some intersex folks consider themselves trans! There’s definitely a line that defines the two, but for the most part, they’re separate identities that cross paths every now and then.

Onto the next part.

The ‘vagina on a man’ part can absolutely be interpreted as transphobic, if its taken slightly out of context. The video itself is the context, and focusing on that part alone and not the video as a whole counts it towards being transphobic. 

Some parts of the video just didn’t age well, but here’s the thing: it’s supposed to be satire, comedic, and not meant to be taken seriously.

So, answering your question: was jello making fun of trans people and saying they’re hermaphrodites/not true guys/gals/nb, and is any of that true?

Answer? Yes-ish? In a sense. He was making fun of the 2014 shitshow of tumblr, the pitchforks and mobs if you didn’t show enough respect. The radical political correctness and SJWs was what he was aiming at. He wasn’t basing the entire video on digging at and hurting any selective group, he was showing how random people on the internet will chase people down over anything and everything. 

Certain parts didn’t translate well, most other parts did! Remember, it was a satirical take, and while not one of my favorite videos, it definitely flew right over people’s heads. You kinda had to scrape off the face-value to see the context underneath, and analysing it made it easier to see the comedic effect Jello was trying to get. 

It was ALSO almost 6 years ago. The dude has a series based on AC that he did with his friends that is already a diverse world. 

People want him to take WTT down and apologize, but... he doesn’t have to take it down. Its a somewhat relevant, somewhat poorly aged satirical cartoon he meant for people to laugh at. People took it seriously and, while the quote I’ve been talking about can be taken as transphobic, if you look at the piece as a whole, its purely attacking the 2014 assholes.

((Ok, so now that’s over: political correctness, feminism, and SJWs are a whole can of worms and again, I’m only gonna continue repeating this: be kind. It doesn’t hurt to be respectful towards people’s race, religion, gender, orientation, etc. Just be kind.))

Onto the rest of the video!

WTT is still somewhat relevant, considering portions of it. (still not a fan of the trigger portion, but that’s for another day and I’m tired)

1:22-2:30 is still true! Check your sources kids! Also, the part of ‘if you don't reblog you’re heartless!’ It’s like those chain letters of ‘if you don’t send this to 20 people then SHE’LL be in ur room at 3am tonight’. I hate seeing those. There are absolutely people on here that are self-diagnosing and are almost always incorrect in their ‘diagnosis’. If you want a diagnosis, please go to an actual doctor and not a stranger on the internet, or even TRUST what half the info you see says. The facts/symptoms on tumblr are so out of proportion and sometimes aren’t even ‘facts’.

That’s all I’ve got for WTT, but there’s a couple other takes I think would help form a better understanding:

@hotfox69‘s long take. While I don’t agree with it wholeheartedly, it makes a lot of really, really good points.

@themightylorax​ had a small take on it. I can’t tell when this was created, but 2014 Tumblr was garbage. It was not a safe place, and the people defending it as a ‘safe place’ knew it wasn’t. It’s just a little better now, but there are still pitchfork-wielding people out on the platform.

@kingofdersecest​ has a cursing and somewhat vulgar take, and while I don’t agree with parts of it, it surrounds the rest of the video and simplifies it down into what Jello was jabbing at.

Tl;Dr: Jello’s Welcome to Tumblr didn’t age well in certain aspects, and while some of it is relevant today, a lot of it was focused on the overly political correctness of 2014 tumblr and the radical feminism and inclusionism that took place. It was also made 6 years ago. The quote in question can absolutely be taken as transphobic out of context, though it was directed as a satirical take on the aggressive people of 2014 tumblr.