#i'm so sorry to folks who have drawn things For Me Specifically and i have not gotten to you.

[starflungwaddledee]

also i want to again apologise for how phenomenally behind i have been with reblogging/responding to artworks on here, including art drawn for me or propaganda for the tournament!!

i'm hoping to start getting to my backlog for this VERY soon, ideally within the next two weeks. so you may start to see an increase of this on your timelines. and if i haven't yet gotten to your artwork don't worry, i most likely have it in my drafts!!!

[spicymancer]

So just wanted you to know, "yellow" is a common slur against Asian Americans and so Huang Feng, being a Bruce Lee (whos an Asian man) clone and all could raise some eyebrows to your intentions. And before i get accused of white knighting, i am Asian

Thanks for reaching out! This is honestly something that might be important to discuss and I appreciate your attempt at broaching the subject delicately. More after the jump.

So to start. I am also Asian. Specifically Chinese American.

As an American born Chinese, I have a weird relationship with my Asian heritage. I have a bad accent when I speak Chinese and most of my upbringing and cultural understanding is very American and western-centric. So I have certain biases at play here that I fully acknowledge. My experience is not universal. But these characters are drawn from that experience.

Huang Feng is a reference to Bruce Lee's performance as Kato in the Green Hornet. Dà Huángfēng being a Chinese term for a hornet.

The character is also narratively implied to be a secret moonlighting identity for the Yellow Ranger in my made-up sentai team. (Who, due to my own decision to always refer to the characters by their Ranger color, is literally just called Yellow by the other members of the cast.)

This is also a reference. Specifically to one of my greatest inspirations, Thuy Trang (Rest in Peace), who played the original Mighty Morphin Yellow Ranger. She was one of the first "Cool Asian Characters" that I encountered in media targeted at me as a child, problematic color choice aside. I sincerely adored her and her giant robot Saber-Toothed Tiger.

To be honest I have a complicated relationship with "Asian Themed" characters in media. So often saddled with cliché stereotypes: Martial Arts, dumplings, nunchucks, etc etc.

But the thing is, even as I roll my eyes whenever I see the Fighting Game character that is The Chinese One who wears a rice hat and a qipao. Or when one is literally just Bruce Lee. I do also immediately main that character. It's a bit of a guilty pleasure. Taking what representation I can get with mixed feelings. Similar to my enjoyment of sexy anime girl art even though it's all rooted in pretty uncomfortable sexist and objectifying aesthetics. A lot of my work comes from a place of exploring my own sexuality/identity. These characters are, partly, my own attempt to explore Asian themes and ideas for myself.

I would love to say that I'm trying to "reclaim" the term or something but I'm just some internet artist drawing cute anime girls and monster smut. For me, playing with these clichés is just another way of being self-indulgent.

Not really defending these creative choices so much as explaining my perspective on them. I totally understand if all this turns folks off! I fully respect those who don't vibe with my work and wish them all the best. It's a big internet and I'm sure they can find something super great to enjoy elsewhere!

Anyway, sorry for the long rambly post. Despite the fact that I'm posting this on Tumblr, I am not super mentally equipped to engage in Discourse, so forgive me if I don't respond to the tags on this.

So I'll just leave y'all with a neat article by Kat Chow discussing the history and usage of the color Yellow in regards to Asian Identity.

[distant--shadow]

Can you share a little bit about your art process? I'm curious to know about how you use references and how you figure out compositions. Your pieces are always so nice to look at and I love how you post a full piece and then a close up, and both of those look really nice on their own.

Love your art <3

(hooo this is long. sorry I love 2 chat.)

well it's multiple factors; in regards to being able to crop a close up and having that work as its own image, that's thanks to the scale the digital medium allows with ease; if these were traditional pencil drawings they would have to be pretty fucking big to have that much detailing on the face, and that in turn would make the drawing process different as you'd be having to step back often, but it's a lot easier digitally to just zoom in back and forth, check things are working from zoomed in and out, flip the image to see things with fresh eyes and make sure things are looking alright etc. I've been drawing on paper for years, and mostly draw/paint in a completely different style to how I do for my fanart, so coming in to digital and seeing it as a hugely different beast actually kinda helps in that sense (tho I'd say most of the time the digital thing really hinders me).

on that digital vs traditional note though, I take pretty much all of my inspiration from traditional artists, so when I'm drawing fanart I'm thinking about how I want the drawing to give me the feeling and sorta composition that those pieces I admire have, whether it's more modern queer and fetish art or old masters and book illustrators. it's having an awareness that the human brain wants to focus in on a face or find eyes, getting as much emotion across in that area but also being conscious and having fun of the potential narrative telling of other details and what the body is doing, sewing in your own symbolism.

for figuring out poses, I have a visual mind, I can see compositions pretty well in my head, so for example; if someone who is commissioning something states the details they would like in a piece, I can usually tell without beggining the sketching stage that, for example, maybe they wouldn't be able to see the hand they want doing something specific if characters were interacting that way and we were seeing their faces as well, or you wouldn't be able to see one of their faces, and if you value seeing their expressions maybe let's chose what you prioritise in terms of what the viewer sees. idk what to give in terms of advice for that, I'm lucky I've got a photographic brain when it comes to stuff like drawing or other boons it grants me irl (but I'm useless with numbers and words so, it balances out).

as for reference I feel like I've touched on this a few times: reference is great! it's important if you're doing the style of drawing I'm doing here (but I also really love work that is more stylised as well, i love folk art and goofy and expressive things) at this point for the likes of Imogen and laudna (and I'm getting there with fearne) - I've drawn them so many times that I just reference myself, and if there's a specific expression I'm needing then I keep a shaving mirror near by and look at myself, same with hands, they're right there, draw straight from em or take a photograph (saying this I am not good at hands lol). other than that yes I will often look for reference of something that roughllly resembles what I wish to draw in terms of posing, and then it's a mixture of kinda treating the reference images like a frankenstein paper doll with metal pin joints and arranging them how I need, but as I've also said before I like to not have a 1:1 reference and duplicate because i want to get my own hand in there, figuring out angles and limbs with lines gives a little bit of movement, proportions being a little off shows what the maker wishes to exaggerate or minimise, these are all enjoyable things to me, I'm not tryna make something photo realistic. so yeah, reference good, reference teach, but your own hand is very important too.

in summary I use a combination of photo/painting/screen cap reference and just my intuition from years of drawing and looking at people for the bodies, and my own drawings and a mirror for the faces. sketching it all out takes quite a bit of time, and I often won't realise until near "the end" (after spending hours colouring caus idk the proper digital ways to do it) that I'm not happy with a thing or two. sometimes I try to "fix" this, sometimes I say "fuck it, it's an excercise and is what it is". people who have commissioned work from me might have had this happen where I've said I'm sending the drawing over and then been like actually can u wait a while I need to tweak some things and spend an hour doing so, caus part of my process is sending the image from my laptop to my phone, and not only is the colour different from my phone to my laptop, but once again it's like seeing it with a new set of eyes and pretty much always reveals a bunch of "mistakes" I've made. the phone thing also goes back to what I said earlier and what you brought up, of that intuition to look at an image both zoomed out in it's full composition, but also pushes our intuition to tap and zoom in (I'm sure there's essays on this shit about viewing art digitally and specifically on phones vs irl) this can be used to your advantage! maybe you have a style that suggests detail but when zoomed in it's very satisfying certain wide strokes of colour, or yeah you can pack in tiny details made with a finer point that you can't see zoomed out. one of the things that sucks about the style I do for my fanart is it's way more obvious when something is wrong. when it's stylised to you it's never gonna be wrong, yknow? uh. anyway. I hope this sorta answers your question. I'm happy to talk about making all day long, I always think what's best is to find what works for you. for me being inspired by things outside of the space youre making things for is really important, and plays part in us all not making similar end results. keep putting your own hand and brain to it and have fun.

thank you❣️

[traegorn]

Hi! I'm not sure if youre necessarily the best person to come to with this question, but a friend of mine is trying to figure out their wedding and wants to do a handfasting, but is worried about cultural appropriation. This friend isn't pagan, wiccan, or a witch but also isn't Christian (we are usamerican though, so "traditional wedding" here would be a Christian ceremony and they arent keen on that), and also isn't Celtic or anything from that region (theyre Chinese but thats a complicated thing for them). I dont know whats drawn them to a handfasting specifically, but they've always been kind of interested in these things (they've known me for most of the decade I've been pagan). Anyways sorry for giving you maybe more info than was needed, if you know anything about cultural appropriation wrt handfasting or anyone who might have more information, I would really appreciate it!

Okay, folks these days are so jumpy it's frustrating. Cultural appropriation isn't about never using something from another culture. It's about closed and open practices, it's about dominant groups taking from marginalized groups, and it's about the complex power dynamics in our society.

In short: it's okay to use things from cultures other than your own as long as it's not a closed practice or from a marginalized group.

Handfasting is not from a closed or marginalized culture.

Relax.

I hope it's a nice wedding.

[objectum-kinkfessional]

HI book anon again replying to another anon replying to me lol

I didn't expect someone to give me advice, thank you! To be honest, I am always so nervous to even do anything because I mostly work with 70+ years old books and the fear of accidentally hurting them is very real, but also they're just so beautiful it hurts. It doesn't help that I am drawn to old books specifically BUT ALSO you're so right about them not being appreciated enough, especially when the donor got them from older relative. Those poor things were probably shoved in some attic for decades and weren't properly taken care of and handling them with care and dignity is the least I can do for them. Some chaste kiss on the cover or gentle strokes on few pages then and there as bonus for being so brave. Godspeed to all folks who adore old objects btw, it's tough to show affection to them but it's worth it.

(also I'm sorry mod for sending so many asks about old books I just have a lot to say about them-)

[blazehedgehog]

Hello, I have a strange question to ask

I've been having some existential crisis about my understanding of art, but mostly when it comes to Sonic

I'd like to belive that there's no valid answer or approach to enjoying something that speaks to you and partaking in it no matter what, if folks have a better time relating to the musical side of the series and not many other aspects of it, that's fine, like a different era and aesthetic, no problem and I'll encourage it in practice. And I find telling someone "you have low/high standards" offensive honestly, it's way too assumptious.

But I'd be lying if the sea of criticism and hot tales online doesn't get to me, making me question maybe I'm wrong, maybe some opinions are more valuable than others. Like I know my preferences, but what if it all comes from ignorance, or me being lenient on others experiences is some sort of creative failure. Maybe the people who want their specific vision of what they love are onto something and are owed that, even tho it would put folks at even more odds.

I find it very disturbing, the idea of an absolute truth and aiming to find it is very comforting but I just hate the idea as well. It would mean disregarding voices that never had the chance to be heard, perspectives and experiences that don't fit within a coherent vision.

Like I'm from a country that was sanctioned to hell and my first language isn't English nor japanese so Sonic was never accessible for me, so I'm inherently biased against someone telling me something I enjoy is not for me.

A bit of followup to that ask: What I'm trying to say is that while I want to support artistic integrity and respect authorial intent, I just the idea of art being treated like a religion and words of artists (and in sonic's case forgotten manuals sometimes lol) to be treated like holy scripture with a specific "vision" or "direction" everyone should follow Also sorry for lengthy ask

This is definitely a hefty subject to be sure.

I spent 12 years as a paid critic. I wasn't paid very much, and the site wasn't very big, but I still took the job seriously enough that I developed a sense that at some point, you just have to plant your feet and establish your own opinion. You can't walk on eggshells around everyone forever. Battle lines have to be drawn for you to be who you are.

Avoiding conflict with strangers is one thing. But you have to express yourself, your intents, and your feelings at some point. By its very nature, that means you are going to be dismissing someone, somewhere. I don't think that can be avoided. Somebody out there will love the thing you hate, and that WILL generate a conflict.

What really and truly matters is how you are prepared for and handle that conflict. Not every disagreement has to be thermonuclear warfare. And sometimes you might want to defuse, and the other person doesn't. To me, that's just part of life. Have opinion, will argue.

I realize this is easier said than done, but if this kind of stuff bothers you, then... don't let it. It's the internet. If something is bothering you, it's easy to get away from it. Nobody is making you remain in the same argument for days or even weeks on end. Maybe this is just something that comes as you get older, but at some point I realized I valued my time more than just yelling at other people online all the time.

So I... stopped doing that. I put my thoughts out in to the world through places like this blog or my Youtube channel, and if people have a problem with the way I express my opinions, I try to express them better. I don't attack back, I just try to identify what they aren't understanding. Rarely does it start arguments anymore. Does it mean my opinions are right? Probably not. Not entirely, anyway. What even is right and wrong in this context? It's all just perspective.

And once you realize that, the idea of drawing a line in the sand, planting your feet and expressing your opinion, all the arguments and disagreements it may generate just become different perspectives. It doesn't mean you're wrong, it doesn't mean they're wrong, because nobody is wrong. It's all just from where you're looking at the thing from.

Given that we're just talking about Sonic the Hedgehog, and there are no guns, or knives, or real violence happening, ultimately you have to realize: who cares? Find your own happiness. This isn't the fate of the world. It's a cartoon hedgehog. And though you may have started an argument today, the sun will still rise tomorrow. Free yourself and enjoy it.

[charrfie]

i like to ask these questions about peoples interests when they need something to talk about...are there any songs that remind you of spamton? any songs that remind you of alien nine? :3 hope you get feeling better soon!!

Hi anonymous thank you so so very much for your question, pondering this alone has helped me reroute my focus, it's very helpful. I appreciate you asking a lot <3 I got very detailed in answering this so I'm putting it under a read more, please enjoy

Surprisingly with as adoring as I am of alien 9, I don't have all too many songs that I directly associate with it? Something about that interest of mine feels very different than all my other interests in which I'm drawn to associate songs with characters or the source material itself. And I'm not sure I could name that difference for you exactly, that's just how it seemed to turn out. I think maybe because alien 9 feels more like a profound open-and-closed art piece rather than something you can delve into just for fun. It has something to say; it's a serious and heavy statement, no more. Not to say I have an issue with folks who *do* decide to delve deeper into it in terms of fandom or song associations, I personally just don't have that pull towards those elements of it. Sometimes I will hear a song though that has a instrumental backing track very similar to the alien 9 ost, and being that it's ost is very striking in terms of how it's arranged, that always sticks out to me. Very sorry I don't have more of a proper answer to give you here!

As for spamton, I have plenty believe me. I was actually just talking to my boyfriend about this the other day, but I tend to associate a lot of 60s and 70s music with him rather than anything else! The playlist I have for him actually doesn't have very many modern songs on it. But before I share any specific songs for this I want to write up a little bit of a reasoning as for why this is.

If we go along with the implications of his origins, we can assume that spamton was born in 1978. He obviously wouldn't have grown up alongside a vast amount of 60s and 70s music right when it was released for this reason, but I think its similar to how a majority of kids grow up listening to music their parents/past generations used to listen to... just kind of a thing you run into and then latch onto bc its such a foundational thing in childhood. That applies to spam too!! I've always imagined music from that time period to be his favorite. It's either easy listening or it's a good dancey tune, both of which are winners in my book. I do believe he'd appreciate the calmness of easy listening 60s/70s actually. I know a lot of people say "oh yeah show this dude hyperpop or some other crazy shit he'd love it" but I truly have to disagree... it feels like that'd overwhelm him if you ask me, he needs something to temper his own erratic nature. Not to mention how it may sound kind of similar to certain phone calls he may or may not have received. Might be pretty unpleasant, to say the least

All this being said: here are a few songs which remind me of him!

Heaven Can Wait by Dean Martin is a really big one for me which is. Slightly embarrassing (๑-﹏-๑) I admittedly do associate a lot of romantic 60s/70s songs with him because well for one I think he's just the type to listen to stuff like that. But also I am love with him. Hope this helps. It's a good song regardless!!

Fairly obvious I feel like but Cars by Gary Numan is also a very big song for him I think. A focus on cars... phone motifs... mentions of "images" in the sense of visions and/or perceptions of someone... generally just an anxious demeanor and sense of wrongness present throughout its entirety... this song's got it all

As for a relatively modern one (2001), the newest song that's come to remind me of him is I Want Wind To Blow by The Microphones. The lyrics are very reminiscent of him to me! Particularly the second verse

Very long-winded answer to your question but I hope this gives you some insight! I'd be happy to provide more songs or explanations if need be. Feeling much better after writing this thank you very very much anon I hope you have a wonderful night

[jayplat]

Ya know, as a paraphile who fully believes I will never act on my paraphilia, it hurts to see folks not understand that there is a difference between someone who hurts others and someone with a paraphilia. Sometimes there is overlap, yes, but every paraphile I know and willingly talk to (specific to those with supposedly harmful paraphilias) has no intent to harm anyone, they just happen to have a "distasteful" attraction that can cause harm if acted on. Yes, there are obviously paraphiles who do bad things, but there are non paraphiles who do those same things. And there are paraphiles who never do harmful things. I don't even look at fucking, drawn erotica or read smut if it has to do with my specific "harmful" paraphilia.

I am in the same boat as many anti paraphile folk. I don't want "pro contact" people to be near me. It disgusts me. But I also know I'm still a creature with feelings and I'm just as complicated as everyone else. I'm not a time bomb waiting to explode. I'm not a monster in disguise. I'm not going to hurt anyone. I'm just another one of this world's creatures that was dealt a shitty hand that I'll have to deal with.

And before you all tell me to go to therapy, do your research! I'm in therapy. I talk about my paraphilic attractions in therapy! Clearly I'm not imprisoned for just experiencing the feelings. And it's actually helpful and leads to less offenses if paraphiles, ESPECIALLY PED OPHI LES, can talk about their attractions in an open, safe space.

Sorry for rambling I'm just. So tired of being hated for something I am constantly aware of and hate about myself as well. I'm not saying it's a sexual orientation but it is just as unshakeable as the fact I'm queer.

[turianhousewife]

I realise I'm part of this conversation since I made the post on the kaidan overhaul mod.

I didn't do it to disparage the efforts of modders, I LOVE modders and I think what people can do with games was amazing.

My critique was mainly that for me, as a poc with naturally textured hair, the overhaul mod specifically felt strange. Primarily because he was never a character who had straight hair in canon. He's one of the only ME characters who has canonically textured hair. So to see an enhancement mod that specifically goes out of its way to remove that unique feature from him struck me as strange, and added to a large pile of generalised micro-aggressions that people with textured hair face.

I love Kaidan, always have done, always will do. He's the character that feels like home, a proper source of grouding amongst the ME cast. I physically cringe when fanfics (particularly the shakarian ones) cast him as a lovesick puppy or the jealous type. Hell Kaidan has even inspired some of my own characters, I think he's a great personality to have around. And of course I've drawn him too. So seeing folks removing something that's a part of him that I value for the sake of enhancement did strike me as upsetting, and I made a post according to those feelings. I'm sorry if I created/added to a negative chorus, but I also think it important to have critical fandom discourse about these things. Hopefully we can strike a balance of being respectful and productive about it.

I'm so tired of seeing all those posts complaining about Kaidan mods... we get it you hate primitives Kaidan and you hate mods that give him "straight hair" (even though there's only two of them and they mimic the vanilla hair cap shape).

crazy idea, but maybe make your own mods instead of complaining about what's already there?

[glamorousruins]

Art Dump #2

continuation of this post!

sighs as I place this bad boy down

So I had this big idea of something I wanted to do for my mutuals. So basically, my love language is gift-giving, right? I wanted to draw a headshot and a little sketch page of the yuusonas/yuus (or just any character of my mutuals) and gift it to them!! Either for being my mutual and putting up with my incoherent daily screaming or whatever.

Now here's what happened:

Life happened, not enough time happened, and at one point I started to really dislike how I drew the current headshots :')))). My style had begun to change when I looked back on this and it bugged me so much that I'm currently abandoning this batch and starting from square one again orz.

Regardless, the characters (in order from left to right) belong to @ai-0uch, @twstlibrary, and @twstedstoryshop !! So sorry that I didn't do your characters justice

But anyway, if you want separate headshots of them lmk! Trust me, I'll do them right one-day orz

ok this is an older sketch but one of my favorite ones regardless

This was inspired by a concept by my homies @smalltasteofhoney and @187-mg!!! Blowing a kiss to you both <33

This sketch is a result of their Idia x reader x Cater fic and everything that went on in the discord server lmaooo I'm sorry but you cannot convince me that Idia is not a discord mod and Cater is scamming him by being his discord kitten. It's literally canon, Cater told me

anyways, it's ugly and old but Imma do a redraw of this one!! Fun fact, this was the first time I've ever drawn Idia lmao

Okay so under the cut will be the NSFW drawings! This does not include sexual stuff smh, I mean yandere, gore, blood, bruises, cuts, etc !! So please beware of that

Okay, so I mentioned in a post that Ru, my version of Yuu, tends to get in fights!! More often than not, he gets his ass beat

While I have to develop the lore more, there is this specific Savanaclaw student who particularly likes giving Ru a hard time. I just wanted to draw the aftermath of said fight! You'll see that his clothes are a bit burnt at some parts and that's because it's hard to win a fight where magic is being used against you

Especially if you are magic-less:')))

anyways, I'm not too happy with this one but it is what it is

SLASHER TREY SLASHER TREY AJUQWHGEVW

Okay so on the discord server we were talking about this one Micheal Myers fanart and how for some reason it gave off Trey vibes???

So I present to you: Micheal Myers!Trey~~~ Ok. So it's terribly obvious idk how to draw blood. I kinda gave up on this one because I couldn't get it in a way I'd like but it's alright. There is another version of Trey smirking at us but I didn't finish it

If anyone wants to see it then I'll finish that one though

please don't ask where his glasses are- idk where they are ok

YAN RUGGIE AAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Ok so I was trying to draw Ace smiling for an ask but then it morphed into yandere Ruggie somehow??? I am actually still working on this one atm and this is currently my Latest drawing- I figured I'd share it anyways!!

I am in love with how it coming out so far... his eyes are my favorite part

he's just so... *swoons*

Anyways- that's all folks! Hope you enjoyed this little dump lmao

Hopefully, this can show that my art style is slowly getting better orz auaghhh. Though it's very obvious that I only like doing headshots/portrait-like drawings. And that's because I do!! I like making drawings as if they are a photo still in time that you're looking at. I like making the things I draw seem like a photo taken at random and my drawings are the result

This is also an excuse to not draw bodies but ignore that

[bratzboykai]

I really do not understand where this whole idea of lesbians and bisexual women branching off into individual identities and communities being a bad thing stemmed from but god it frustrates me as a bi woman/bi person in general and as a person who loves many many of my awesome big sexy lesbians friends.

Bisexual women and lesbians may have congregated as the same group once but we're not anymore, and thats FINE and its actually a good thing! Because despite the overlap in experiences as women who are attracted to women (and yes I am including trans women when I say women), bisexual women and lesbians still have significant differences in experience and marginalization unique to their attraction that need to be addressed as separate communites because being aware of these differences provides a basis for us to tackle said issues in a way that is specifically conscious and adapted to our individual communities and forms of opression. God I hope that makes sense lol

Like as a WHOLE community we ALL have overlap in experiencing homophobia or bigotry directed as us for not conforming to gender and expression the way cis heteronormative society wants us to (i.e butch lesbians, effeminate gay men, trans/non binary people who do not pass/choose not to pass, etc) but we all as individual communities in one, face individual types of marginalization that we need to talk about so that those who don't experience it in the broader community and outside of it understand us.

For example cishet society hates lesbians for NOT being attracted to men and being attracted to women instead, it hates gay men for being attracted to men and not women, bisexuals are scrutinized for the fact that we have fluid attraction, trans folks but particularly trans women are hated for being women despite the assigned gender that society expects for them to conform to and at the same time intertwine that specific transphobia with misogyny which thusly creates transmisogyny (I'm sorry of I phrased this badly, I would absolutely appreciate correction!), etc. It is incredibly important that we acknowledge those specific and DIFFERENT experiences that we are targeted with because other wise it'd be like being blind to each others suffering.

And in the case of lesbian and bisexual women, trying to lump us in as one big group again erases the history of opression lesbians specifically face and fought for being women who do not show attraction to men and for being women who love women and take joy in sexual and romantic pleasure in loving women, and to do so proudly, despite societies insistence that women have to be with men. For bisexual women it creates and perpetuates the god awful attitude that bisexuality as an identity is simply not enough all in its own. It is yet another unnecessary ammendment made to bisexuality because y'all dont want to question the internalized issues you may have with it. Lesbianism excluding the attraction to men is not a threat to those of us who have attraction to women ALONG SIDE an attraction to men in ANY capacity, that is literally what bisexuality is for and that's ENOUGH!!! Some bisexuals are drawn more to women than men, but still acknowledge that part of them is still attracted to men and guess what, THAT'S STILL BISEXUALITY AND ITS FINE!!!! There is literally 0 need to impose an attraction to men on to lesbians like AT ALL and acting like we have to go back to being the same group does exactly that.

And to top it off, lesbianism does not exclude nonbinary folks and trans women just as bisexuality doesn't exclude nonbinary and trans people as a whole; trying to lump us in together with attraction to non binary people as an excuse is fucking stupid and gross. Because again, you're perpetuating the lesbophobic belief that all lesbians are trans exclusionist and the biphobic belief that bisexuals are transphobic and limited or binary in their attraction.

I of course haven't even touched on the specific difference of how bisexuality and lesbianism differ in terms of social impact such as ipv, addiction, depression, etc. There are lots of studies and statistics that show the numbers are different between us and even between us and the rest of the community! Being able to be separate respected communities allows us to see the impact of biphobia and lesbophobia as two specific forms of oppression and find the right kind if help and resources for us to heal as lesbian or bisexual women!!!

Do you like not literally see how trying to make us one big group with 0 acknowledgement of how significant our difference are is harmful?

[powermetalhag]

Hello i noticed you wrote a thesis related to MCR - a friend of mine is writing one too so if you have any resources you could share that'd be really helpful!!!

Sorry for the late response, I was away from home for the week and had to wait until I was back at my computer where the articles I used are favourited. I hope it's not too late, but if it is, maybe someone else will enjoy these links.

I didn't actually write a thesis about mcr (i think i phrased my tags badly in the post you must've seen). I wrote a sociology essay about the ways that emo is constructed through the body, which involved an analysis of an anti mcr rant from 2003 punknews which I got from a thesis someone else wrote. That thesis was incredibly interesting and likely has a lot which relates to mcr that your friend could use. I unfortunately only found it when I only had time to read a few chapters, but it was so good I'd love to finish it someday. It was "It's not a fashion statement, it's a death wish": subcultural power dynamics, niche-media knowledge construction, and the 'emo kid' folk-devil by M Daschuk. It can be read here:

https://harvest.usask.ca/handle/10388/etd-06032009-151109

I didn't read much that was specific to mcr, but I could share links to some articles which I found useful or interesting in case they help? It's been a while so I don't remember as much as I'd like about which ones were good out of my long list of bookmarks.

The book Nothing feels good: punk rock, teenagers, and emo by Andy Greenwald provides a ton of history and insightful points about emo, but it stops before the point that mcr took off as far as I'm aware (I don’t think they’re mentioned). So it's kind of about a different era, but a lot of points will still be relevant. I remember it having interesting things to say about what emo means to people and gendered narratives in emo songs, and emo's relation to youth (I think there were some interesting points in the jawbreaker chapter about the adolescent quality of emo and emo fan's aversion to letting their idols grow up.)

Ridiculous suffering on youtube: digital parodies of emo style by Anna Johanssen and Hans T Sternudd was really useful for illustrating the cultural backlash against emo and how that was often tied up with homophobia, enforcing gender norms, and a callousness toward mental illness, suicidal people, and the emotionality of teenagers. I don’t have a link, but dm me if it sounds useful and you’d like some screenshots of my pdf. There was another very good article about anti emo sentiments which was based around posts in an emo forum, but I can’t find it right now. Hmu if you’re interested and I can look harder.

Exploring dress and behaviour in emo subculture by Kaci Schmitt had some good points but I don’t remember it that well. But it had some interesting things to say about glam rock influence on emo and the key areas where emo differs from glam (I.e gender nonconformity in glam having an over-the top ‘carnivalesque’, escapist quality vs gender nonconformity in emo being a punk-like expression of authenticity). Could be worth just searching the keyword glam. Can be read here:

https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1466&context=etd

This one is probably not very relevant, but I'm including it just in case because I found it interesting, it’s:  Why alternative teenagers self-harm: exploring the link between non-suicidal self-injury, attempted suicide and adolescent identity. Their study finds that even when you adjust for socio-economic factors and victimisation, teenagers who identify as emo, punk or goth are still more likely to self harm or experience suicidal ideation than non alternative teenagers. Then they attempt to explain why this might be. I think one of their main guesses was that the personality profile typically drawn to these cultures might coincidentally also contain traits which leave them predisposed to that sort of thing. Another was that it was a sort of social contagion. Can be read here:

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/1471-244X-14-137

Sorry for making this so long and not having anything more relevant. Hope it can help a little.

[quillquiver]

Feel free not to answer I just wanted to say I think the whole approach to "season 16" is very much so an age thing. I PROMISE that's not me calling you old lol I just mean a lot of people who are super into it are in their late teens/early 20s and a lot of the people who are super not into it are late twenties/thirties/whatever. I say this as someone in their early twenties having a blast. I think it might have something to do with how fandom/the ways fans interact with the works is evolving, like me and a bunch of us were on spn tumblr as 13/14/15-year-olds and grew up with that old tumblr energy that invited this sort of mania, whereas people who were older at the time or had been in other fandom spaces before didn't really participate in that. I think a lot of us are very self aware and "tinhat" because it's legitimately fun for us. I'm not criticizing you at all because I totally get what you're feeling, your posts on it just made me think a lot about this.

No, this is great! I am definitely from a different generation of fans - and I’ve noticed a divide in age as well. I guess I’m just curious how people have the energy? Or is it that things aren’t taken so personally?

For context: when I started in fandom, it was something that had an element of seriousness and responsibility because it had to be - it wasn’t something talked about, and you didn’t flaunt yourself because you didn’t want to drawn attention to yourself or the community for legitimate fear of getting your shit taken down and being slapped with a lawsuit. I started at the very, very end of that, and because it was hard to find, and because there was community responsibility involved, there was a code of conduct that had to be learned and adhered to. So like, being a fan is serious to me, and it’s an important part of my identity.

I have been in SPN fandom for the better part of a decade, and on tumblr for longer than that. So I know that energy! It’s great! I just feel that it’s shifted from motivating fanworks to encouraging this weird grief spiral, where everyone constantly seems to be angry and upset, and then couch those emotions in social justice in order to legitimize them - when, to my mind, feeling them should be legitimizing enough! Fucking revel in your emotions, this is a space built to process them, specifically. We made a space for ourselves to do that.

I guess I feel like a lot of engagement in fandom just feels very high stakes now, when it used to be this really nice, low-stakes environment way more conducive to relaxation. Sure, there would be serious drama that would kick up every now and then, but it was never sustained like this. I saw posts of people who seemed to be legitimately upset there was no new drama from the KoC podcast - and I’m confused, because before 15x18, drama was something we all generally agreed to try and avoid. Or at least, we knew exactly who was wont to create it and steered clear if that wasn’t our thing.

But this is everywhere. I’m not kidding; I have probably unfollowed more people than I ever have because I’m trying to get my dash somewhere back to normal and nothing is working. Almost every other post across my dash involves some kind of academic theory or willingly buys into network conspiracy--Jensen’s silence is sexy, but given the atmosphere in the fandom right now, is anyone actually surprised he or Misha haven’t spoken up? No one knows what their NDAs look like, and if it were me, I’d keep my trap shut out of sheer self-preservation. 

And like, I love tinhatting. I have been cockles a cockles tinhatter for a long-ass time and I enjoy the hell out of it. But - and I’m definitely gonna sound old here - I feel like there’s an element of respect, not only for the cast, but honestly, mostly for the community at large, that seems to have been obliterated in the SPN renaissance. I think that because lots of young folks grew up at a time where fandom was generally widely accepted, and now are being catered to, and they have forgotten that this is an actual community, and that what one person does reflects on all of us. Tagging the cast in shippy posts? A big no-no. Because I can tell you right now that the person you’re tagging might see your username and think of you as an individual, but you are part of a community that has been Perceived for a long-time, and your behaviour reflects on alllllll of us. 

And last thing, I swear, but like. The posts. The posts that just say the same thing in different words: from different blogs, from the same blogs, all with this air of manic self-importance that ratchets my anxiety up to 11.... what is with that??? These things rack up hundreds of notes and I am mystified because not only have we covered this years ago, we covered this last week and the post is dated 30mins ago. There’s this obsession with being right and finding the truth and being smart and just rehashing that over and over and it’s exhausting to me. 

And I know I am currently coming off as an old fart who’s complaining about young people and screaming get off my lawn but I am genuinely curious: Is it that I just take things very personally? Is it that everything rolls off you loyal s16 followers? How the hell do you have the energy for this? Don’t you want to process your grief? Are you grieving? How do you interact with works? Like, how, from your perspective, is that changing? 

These are legitimate questions, and this was very long, so if you’re reading this I’m sorry. 

[marshmallowprotection]

Sorry to bring this topic back now, but I'm honestly glad to see you talking about the passport tequila(?) thing. I haven't read your passport post yet because I wanna avoid spoilers for the passport just in case I manage to get it one day (but it'll take a while till that happens, seeing Cheritz still isn't shipping to Finland and I still haven't got the bodypillow I ordered from them in May), but I've seen two pictures of some of its contents already. The second one a photoset of him and MC (which btw was seriously adorable and made me wanna get the passport immediately, man he's so cute) and the first one I saw was the doodle of Saeran being passed out.

My friend messaged me about it, also pretty devastated and disappointed that the artist had drawn something like that in the passport, completely forgetting his past and trauma with alcohol. Honestly, because it was the first ever thing I heard about the passport's contents and the first doodle I saw, I was really disappointed and felt hesitant about ever getting it. I went on a whole rant about it back then and then later started feeling like I overreacted a bit...

But not gonna lie, it kinda upset me too because it just seemed so OOC for him to do? You pretty much already put how I feel about it into words really well. I just don't think he'd drink alcohol, seeing that's pretty much where his trauma came from, and also when I think about the friends and mutuals I have who've had alcoholic parents and swore to never drink themselves thanks to that, and how Saeyoung doesn't wanna drink because of his mum and they share that trauma…

Then after talking about it with a few friends I began to think that hey, maybe he wanted to try it out once and already after ONE sip went "too bitter DX" and didn't want more. He likes sweet stuff anyway, even if he didn't have all the trauma, I doubt his sweet tooth would like the taste of alcohol. The first impression my friend and I got was that he was DRUNK, but nah, now he just looks like he's suffering because it was too bitter lol

But then I saw someone here mention that it might not even be an alcoholic drink (or that he passed out from the heat) and hey, I'm just gonna go ahead and headcanon that now, it was just way too bitter for him

In the end I do think that the artist who worked on that passport wasn't entirely aware of his past, which is a shame. Or just didn't think about it. I think someone told them to "make some cute and funny doodles of him" and they thought "hey drunk Saeran lol that could be funny and cute" without thinking about it more, and that's how the doodle became a thing

You’re still waiting for that? Jesus, I hope that the mail service is able to open up soon for your country and that it’s okay for them to ship things around. It’s been a while now, I would’ve thought that they might have been able to work around to get it to you! Well, precautions are precautions, and those are important when the world is like this but huh. Odd that it’s not working around yet. 

It really unsettled me when I saw it. I thought, “Okay, maybe it’s not actually just straight-up tequila or booze, I can rationalize this away as something else cause it’s really not okay to me.” I know someone said in the post that it’s on the Wiki that Saeran’s not a big fan of soda because it gives him headaches, and I know that feeling, so if one wants to think it’s soda, they can. It’s easy to say, well, it’d be possible that it’s the dry heat of the country and he’s flopped over from that after finally getting something chilled. 

It’s easier for me to rationalize it in that manner instead of saying that it’s alcohol even though it’s clearly intended to be seen as that. I’ve unfortunately got similar trauma and I see myself in the Choi boys. Do you know how rare it can be to find characters that are adults that don’t drink or aren’t invested in drinking culture as a whole? I’m fine with people enjoying their vices and doing things in moderation but—

I just cannot relate to it. I’m nearly 24 and I cannot stand even the smell of that stuff. It’s fine if you enjoy your wine or liquor or whatever, it just feels in such poor taste to draw out someone drinking that has made it very clear that they aren’t comfortable with drinking, and they shouldn’t have to explain out their trauma to have their feelings justified. The whole, “Just one sip, it won’t really hurt you,” is so toxic.

Can’t tell you how many times someone has told me that when I’ve made it very clear that I’m uncomfortable with that and I would rather chug dish soap than be subjected to booze. 

I’m proud of Saeran for how far he’s come in his AE. I sincerely am, emotionally he’s doing so much better and he’s working on himself, but I really don’t see him or his brother ever trying alcohol. There could be a point where maybe they just say, “What the hell did she even see in this? What do people even see in this stuff?” and they try one singular sip, and go: “Yeah, no, this isn’t the thing for me, no thanks.” 

I’m cool with that if that is what they choose to do. It’s their body, their trauma, and their choice. 

Saeyoung and Saeran have very clear trauma from Alcoholism. It’s made very clear from the both of them that they don’t drink. Seven notes that he’s about as straight-laced as they come when it means alcohol or smoking. Unknown can’t really be counted as a smoker, he literally used that as an excuse during the SE to contact Mint Eye. So, I’ve never read him as a smoker, either. It was a good excuse. Neither of them gets involved with addictive vices that are legal for you to use. 

I struggle with fanon content sometimes because I’ll find stories or imagines where the writer has shown Saeyoung or Saeran drinking, and I just have to nope out of that setting. It’s not cute or cheeky. I personally don’t answer any requests that involve the boys drinking because I’ve made my stance very clear on the subject and how I feel about depicting characters that do not want to drink and have made it known that they do not want to drink as drinking. The rest of the RFA? Sure, some of them drink occasionally, fairly in moderation, which is alright. 

The Passport itself is really cute, no spoilers, but that’s the only thing within its contents that made me uncomfortable. The rest of it was definitely worth what I paid for and it made me smile if that’s any comfort to you. It’s just that one little doodle that just... yeah, I think I would go with your theory on this one, and that being that the artist might not have known specifically about the brothers or what they’ve dealt with in their lives, and just went with a cute idea they had and it’s not really anything huge. 

It’s fine to drink and all, but it’s equally important to respect when someone says that they don’t want to do it. That is a personal choice, and I just wish more folks would consider Saeran and Saeyoung’s feelings on the matter since it’s been stated in the canon plenty, specifically by Saeyoung during his Routes events in the game, and you can infer from Saeran fairly easily given what he was subjected to in his life. 

TLDR; It’s fine to drink when you want to do it, and there’s nothing wrong with it in moderation; but, it’s important to respect that not everyone wants to drink or get involved with that sort of stuff. 

[christian-witchy-business]

So I'm a 16 year old looking into being a Christian witch, because I'm feeling drawn to that path, and I feel like God wants me down this path as well. I've told my mom, and she accepts me, so now my next path to take is finding something right for me. So, that being said, maybe have any advice for a newbie? Thanks 😊

Hello! Congratulations on discerning a new path for yourself and welcome! I’m so glad your family is accepting of your desire to pursue a non traditional form of Christianity.

I have three major pieces of advice.

First, you do not need to be a specific “archetype” of witch, especially not at first. You don’t have to come into this saying “I’m a Green Witch” or “Im a Hedge Witch.” You can take time to explore what paths interest you and research those further. Let yourself get interested in various different types of magic and don’t bind yourself to one idea. If you like cooking, look into food magic. If you think you may like divination, start learning tarot. Think spirit work is cool? Do some research and learn how to protect yourself before you start inviting things into your home, but go for it. Mix and match your interests and don’t let anyone tell you that you have to pick just one.

Second, remember to center your faith. There are some great Christian witch blogs here and some Christian blogs that, while not inherently witchy, are very open to mysticism and folk magic. Off the top of my head I can think of @adhdcatholicwitch @hymnsofheresy @mysticismmess in particular. Go hunting through tags to find others. Remember that God is central to our faith, not magic. Yes, magic does cool stuff, but God is the river that all that power comes through. We can’t do anything without God and, as Christians, our devotion to God needs to come first. Pray. Do devotionals. Light candles and burn incense and talk with God. Chat with Saints if that’s your thing. Read the Bible and work to understand it beyond what you were taught in Sunday School and mass. @queerlychristian has some amazing sermons and material on interpreting the Bible beyond a literal guidebook or rulebook.

People (both witches and regular Christians alike) will try to tell you that this isn’t an acceptable path and that Christians can’t dabble in magic. Finding a healthy and strong relationship with God will help you persist in your path despite the opinions of others.

Finally, be careful who you learn from and what you practice. Magic is cool, there’s so many different things to explore and rituals to learn! But remember that not every ritual is from an open religion or culture. Learn what terms and actions are closed to you. Stay away from people who claim that there’s no such thing as a closed practice. Most indigenous magic systems (Native American religions, African religions, Indigenous Australian, etc.) are closed and many others require initiation and training. Also, Kabbalah is a Jewish practice and anyone who tries to tell you it’s fine for a Christian because “it’s the same God” is probably antisemitic. Check out @will-o-the-witch for more info on Jewish witchcraft and how to be a good ally to Jewish people (who aren’t just Christian Lite™️). Note that staying away from them doesn’t and shouldn’t mean that you are the equivalent of a 4 year old putting their fingers in their ears and going “la la la not lisrening.” It means not practicing closed traditions. Learn about them, know what Voodoo actually entails. Ask questions about what the evolution of root work in America was. Know which Native American groups practice what types of religions. Ignorance is not the same as respect.

Also, if you plan to follow Norse pagan blogs, make sure you do a quick scroll through the blog before following. Most are amazing people with great resources but unfortunately white supremacists have decided that Odin and Thor loooove and support white supremacy (spoiler: they don’t) and have hijacked the religion. 99% of Norse blogs are great, just be on the lookout for Nazi bs. Also, be wary of any witches that deny the presence of male witches or say anything about how witchiness is derived from womanhood. This is usually a calling card for transphobic behavior. There are a lot of TERFs in the witch community.

This got long and I’m sorry. If you have more specific questions, feel free to DM me and we can chat more. These are my major tips when starting witchcraft on tumblr.

Tl;dr: 1) explore what you love, 2) remember to be Christian first, witch second, and 3) be aware that there are racists, transphobes, sexists, and assholes in the witch community and be somewhat on the lookout for them.

[voxofthevoid]

Hii. Can i share an irrelevant yet interesting thing i observed? On twitter, mcu stans and writers & artists are segregated bc they mostly clash. Anyway, lots of stans see steve as bottom sometimes to the point of feminization, while for writers its the other way around-they do it w/ bucky. I have no problem either way but I'm just wondering why that is. Any thots? Feel free to ignore this hahaha its stupid but im really curious

Shit. Just realized how my ask abt the twitter stans + writers sounded. The clash has nothing to do w/ sex positions btw. Mostly mcu twt criticizes the "problematic content" & "fetishization". The most recent one I can think of is bucky being drawn in feminine clothes. Which is weird bc the way they talk about steve isnt different? Im just confused why theyre against bucky being seen that way. Sorry for bothering u!! Just wanted to clear that up. Pls ignore 😭 

---

Hi, anon! It’s not a stupid question at all, I understand the confusion about some fandom behaviors. Gods know I’ve got it too. I do have thoughts (and also thots but the pandemic has separated me from them).

So disclaimer: I avoid twitter like the plague, so I’m going by only what you've described, which is that there are two groups who don’t get along and both display the same behavior but one thinks the other is problematic for that behavior.

Now, this specific instance might be alien to me but the general gist of it is sadly very familiar.

(Also, I’m gonna be using ‘you’ in the general sense a lot in this. I’m not accusing you of anything described here, nonnie)

First of all, whenever fandom discussions segue into accusations of "problematic content" and "fetishization", you can stop unpacking and throw away the whole damn suitcase. In this particular case, if one side is saying that feminizing Bucky is fetishizing (how the fuckst even) while they themselves feminize Steve, then they’re hypocrites who’re clearly far less subtle about their double standards than most people who engage in this sort of wank.

As for why they act this way - from what I’ve generally observed, there’s a trend in fandom where it’s no longer enough to simply like or dislike something. You have to do it for woke reasons and moreover, you have to go out of your way to convince other people to also like/dislike it. This is baffling to me. I understand finding fandom friends who share your tastes. Common ground is fun, even - especially - for venting/bitching purposes. But those who go “my way or the highway” for all of fandom make zero sense. Not everyone will agree with your character interpretations and your ships and your likes and your dislikes. We’re all different people looking for different things from fandom.

For the most part, this is an implicit understanding in fan interactions, but for a while, things have been changing. There’s a lot of performative vitriol from certain sects of fans. Quite a few people act like your tastes in fiction define you as a person.

No. It doesn’t. If you hate Natasha, you’re not a misogynist. If you think Stucky is boring, you’re not a homophobe.

And to use the example you cited, drawing Bucky in feminine clothes doesn’t make you a fetishizer or a transphobe or whatever hot-button word people like to throw around when men are drawn in feminine ways. Drawing Steve that way also doesn’t make you any of these things.

But for a lot of folks, it’s not enough to simply say “yeah, I hate Bucky in a dress but I love Steve in one.” You have to do mental gymnastics to show why Bucky in a dress is fetishizing (once again, fetishizing  what) while Steve in a dress is a-okay. It doesn’t make much sense, as evidenced by your confusion, anon.

I got a little sidetracked but yeah, sounds like that's why what you’re describing happens. Basically, individual tastes are complex and can’t always be easily explained, but toxic fandom pockets have it made it so that these tastes can’t be expressed unless they’re accompanied by the ‘right reasons.’

That’s my two cents at least. Hope it helped? Feel free to drop by again if you wanna ask anything else <3