#if you can't insult someone without being ableist then that says so much more about YOU than the person you're trying to insult.

[lxghtofthephoenixx]

As someone who acknowledges that it looks like an edgy teen caricature, certain antis try so hard to be offensive. Try again, calling people the r-slur doesn't make you cool or offensive in a way that counts. You're literally just going to be reported and blocked because you're too uninteresting to engage with.

[ii-neg-confessions]

this is literally the Twitter of Tumblr 💀 how woke do you have to be to be mad at twelve years olds. ofc they didn't know better and it was a different time !! Imagine being queer meanwhile disrespecting someones pronouns just because you claim they're "queerbaiting".

Oh yes! the english spoon is a colonizer for having attitude towards an implied black woman.. Pay attention.. he was JEALOUS that's why he was such a prick! This blog might feed my urge to get mad but this is all rage bait. ( Though I admit, Silver isn't innocent.. BUT HE DEFINITELY ISN'T RACIST?????)

They "Villianized" Cabby. Alright. Try having everything written about you, without your consent / permission, ESPECIALLY if it's offensive! I'D BE MAD TOO. But she LEARNED from her mistakes. She got better, I don't understand why you expect there to be no drama in the show.

The creators did do a bad job with gender & other representation, I agree. But OPEN YOUR GODDAMN EYES!

imagine using "woke" as an insult

it's the fact that they just swept everything under the rug and deleted everything without even spending a SINGLE WORD to hold themselves accountable for their past that makes me and many others iffy about AE

you need to educate yourself and dig deeper into stuff. II has much higher standards (or so it claims to) so of course there's more than meets the eye. There is a correlation between silvercandle and the "colonizer x defenseless native" trope that has hurt many indigenous people and still stains indigenous rep to this day.

the cabby scene was ableist as fuck and AE ADMITTED using her memory issues as a cheap plot device. but y'all just choose to ignore it

my eyes are pretty damn open, can't say the same about yours.

[hypezombies]

Stranger Things becoming so mainstream is simultaneously the best and the worst thing to happen to the show. The best cause the Duffers got the chance to bring to life the full vision and can expand on it as much as they want. And the worst because this way the audience is full of people who do not understand the show and are most likely gonna throw senseless critics at it, instead of anything actually good. And I'm not even talking about the zero media literacy. It's a HUGE issue in this fandom but it's not the only one.

The show has been advocating against bullying and conforming since the first season and the fandom is filled with people who act EXACTLY like the bullies in the show and shame others when they don't fit their standards of conformity. Believe it or not the Eddie Munson stans that everyone loves to make fun of are the real target audience of the show. Nerds, outcasts, people who like to engage in fandom culture, cosplay, analyse, theorize. Not the people who are used to consuming only shallow media that is meant to be taken for exactly what is shown and nothing more and who never had trouble fitting in in their lives. Not to mention the Eddie stans act exactly like people in every other fandom do, but most people who like Stranger Things have no idea of what normal fandoms are like and act superior for it too.

And shows, movies, books, fandoms and so on, are a form of escapism for so many people, but instead you can't even enjoy a piece of fanart, or character analysis, or whatever, without stumbling upon someone making fun of others simply for having a different view on something and, way worse, throwing homophobic, racist and ableist insults for this same reason. These are people who have always had everything catered to them and are too stuck in their view of the world to even realize that this show is not for them.

Troy was shoved to the ground and humiliated in front of the whole school for being homophobic and got a broken arm for being ableist. Similarly, Angela got her nose busted for being ableist. This is what the creators of the show think of garbage people like them. And instead we have people like some Mlvn shippers who are openly homophobic, racist and ableist to Bylers, simply because they don't like their little heteronormative, already seen a thousand times before, ship. And then they turn around and throw the senseless ableist and sexist accusations whenever someone doesn't agree with them on Mlvn being endgame or doesn't like them as a ship. This is the literal real life version of Angela making a presentation on Helen Keller, pretending to give a shit about disabled people, while bullying and humiliating El for her disabilities. And this is NOT me saying that you shouldn't ship Mlvn or stuff like that, this is me saying that that part of the fandom is more often than not the problem. And, again, it's because the majority of them are the people who always fit in and always have everything catered to them. It's not a coincidence that they are the ones not willing to even consider other possibilities.

And like, EVERY protagonist in the show is an outcast who doesn't fit in society's standards for one reason or another (let's ignore Steve for a moment). And while people who are like the protagonists get shamed in the fandom, they get rewarded in the show whenever they are themselves and don't try to conform.

The show reached an audience that was never in the mind of the creators, who are so used to always being the target of everything and are actively making the experience worse for everybody. And you just know they're most likely gonna say the dumbest shit when s5 comes out, instead of bringing any good criticism to the table, because they're incapable, or simply REFUSE to see the show and it's themes for what they are meant to

[chaoticrystal]

I’m so sorry to bother you, but you left some tags about someone telling you to go run without knowing you and your health problems. 1. Totally understand as a wheelchair user myself but 2. I feel like maybe reframing this for yourself would be more helpful, like if the person does not know you have invisible disabilities, they could just be offering advice that has helped them non-maliciously. You can just chose to note that it probably wouldn’t be good for you bc of XYZ reason they don’t know and move on. Sometimes people aren’t trying to be ableist and malicious, especially since you say you hike.

I think noting how much someone actually knows about your illness can help Re-frame the outlook on the situation. That person probably just wanted to help if they said it that way in that context ! Not everyone wants to hurt you, even if some people do!

ah thank you! In this case I think it was an ableist remark by the tone and the other contents of what they said. I appreciate this ask though! Unfortunately some people just... aren't kind about such things. They did try to argue with me after I brought up a reason I can't and I quickly shut that down. It ended up bothering me way more than it should have and is still pretty fresh in my mind as it happened only yesterday.

I'm grateful that I'm surrounded by people who do genuinely understand and do give good advice! And because my disabilities are mostly invisible, it rarely happens that people outside of my group make any comment at all about them. It's just... unfortunate when they do. Most "advice" I've been given by strangers throughout my life has been thinly veiled to just straight-up unsolicited and disparaging comments about me or my parents for "letting me be disabled" (when in reality they've only done their best over the years to help me succeed as a person despite the struggles they had too.)

Adding disabilities into the equation doesn't negate the respect and decency you deserve... It is my firm belief that everyone, despite their personal situations, should be treated with kindness, and that wasn't even afforded to me by those select few, just because I'm slightly off of what they view as acceptable. It adds insult to injury that they were trying to frame it as "being helpful" in those situations.

In the end, it doesn't matter that I do take care of myself, that I hike, or that I look physically "healthy", there are still people with pre-concieved ableist notions that are apparent when you tell them you have "health problems." People should be afforded decency no matter their problems and that decency should be reflected in what they chose to say to you. After all is said and done, those negative interactions will never be as important to me as the generous and genuine advice that I've been given by those (strangers and friends alike) who were kind to me.

[buttercupdemon]

I was aware of the drama but I really didn't think you'd go so far as to be that manipulative and mean Jay. I thought you were nice considering we got along pretty well, but outright lying and misinterpreting things on purpose? :(

I say on purpose, but part of me really hopes you're just too engrossed in your self-victimization to realize/understand the truth.

But THIS?

Either this is a friend of yours, whose opinion you agree with enough to use as "proof" of Random's "bad moderation" (which btw, since when is being dedicated for a long time bad?? That's literally why most shows even come to be), OR, even worse, this is YOUR doing. Now I'll try to belive that you wouldn't be as rancid as to write this clearly horrible, demeaningly ableist question. But YOU chose to use this. YOU agreed with it. Random doesn't "claim" to be neurodivergent, she has been officially diagnosed with ADHD by a psychiatrist. And "acoustic", really? Using "austistic" as an insult? As a neurodivergent person yourself, I can't begin to fathom how you would let that slide. I for myself am as dedicated to Undertale as Random is to Kaeloo and it disgusts me that you would ever associate with someone shaming her for her dedication and neurodivergence. No matter how upset you are, resorting to insulting people who not only are fellow neurodivergent people, but also claiming that they are faking JUST to try and gain points is vile.

On the topic of claiming someone is faking.

Yeah. Good try, but claiming someone is faking something just because it's convenient for your argument will only work when people don't have proof that you know nothing about what you're talking about. Next up is a screenshot of a casual conversation I had with Random on December 9, 2023:

Random has been questionning her sexuality since LONG before the drama ever started. Actually, at the time, so was I! It isn't odd for queer people to question their sexuality a lot until they find the right label. Some never do. Plus, Random was raised in a Christian family, so it only makes sense that she started exploring her sexuality once she moved out (again, she moved out a couple years ago, so it still wasn't recent).

You accused her of wanting "internet clout" from her mental health issues because she couldn't see a therapist, despite her stating several times that she's been wanting to and just wasn't able to due to her difficulty doing things without her parents' approval. Note that those messages are both from before you posted your doc, the first one dating back to August 2023 (and more all the way from 2022).

Again with another false accusation which, I'll try to give it that, is most likely a misunderstanding. Here, you claim Random to be misgendering Dolly out of spite and hated:

But the fact is, from what Random knew (and what I knew too), Dolly used ANY pronouns, as evidenced here:

If anything changed since then, none of us were aware.

Besides, Random never misgendered anyone, no matter who. She also never misgendered you despite the drama, even correcting someone misgendering you:

Also WOOOW, asking for people's opinions off the server and then calling the positive answers "ass-kissing"? Real low. Forbidden be I for enjoying a server where my friends and I support each other and talk about a show I like!

There is so much more to say, but I'll end with this because I'm honestly baffled that you found so many things to twist, I don't know how long it would take me to correct all of them.

You use this as an example of Random "allowing people to say kaeloo is a girl"

That's clearly not what this exchange is about?? "youregay" was me, when I was 16 (meaning Random was 18. Not very important but I find it bonkers that these screenshots even exist in the first place because they're clearly not recent, making this feel really stalkerish)? and the meme being disscussed was mine. Random's comment about Kaeloo and Mr. Cat wasn't a complaint about Kaeloo being referred to as a a guy, it was about their places in the meme itself. I know because I was literally there and we talked about it. Furthermore, I have referred to Kaeloo as a guy/he in context several times in the past, and so has Random.

All in all, it really feels like you're either:

Grasping at straws to try and make Random look bad.

So misinformed about the person that you're complaining about and so caught up in your own beliefs that you don't see how much you're unconsciously lying.

Again, from our interactions before this incident, I thought you were a genuinely nice and interesting person, even if we didn't talk much. It breaks my heart to see you treat my friends like that. And I'm not just talking about Random, but everyone in the doc that was mentioned simply for choosing to believe the person they consider a friend. Please, please do better. If not for yourself, then at least for the people around you. In the end, I pray that this situation will resolve peacefully, but I also pray that you and all the other people on your side grow and never hurt someone like that again. I'm sorry it ever had to be like that, and I'm sorry you think you're in the right.

A Cautionary Tale of Small Fandoms

𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝒹𝑒𝒻𝑒𝓃𝓈𝑒 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒸𝓁𝒶𝓇𝒾𝒻𝒾𝒸𝒶𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃 𝑜𝒻 𝒶 𝓉𝓌𝒾𝓈𝓉𝑒𝒹 𝓈𝓉𝑜𝓇𝓎

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[levis-little-nuggie]

I wasn't sure where to start with this post. It seemed the more I looked into content @diavolosthots posted and her reactive, petty disposition to those who oppose her ideals, the worse the situation became. This is a long post and anyone who tags this as "drama" is getting reported and blocked. Fucking try me.

The main takeaway of this post:

Chey is not an ally to LGBTQIA+. She is transphobic, acephobic, and ableist.

She may call herself an ally, and she may show that she is capable of admitting mistakes, but an ally is someone who learns by listening to the voices of those she's hurt, insulted, and offended. You learn to be better. An ally is to be better.

Chey is not an ally. She hasn't been, and she isn't now.

Research, screenshots, proof, all under the cut

1. The obeyme-confessions reblog, timestamp says "yesterday"

From the confession and from what I've experienced amongst the fandom, many content creators feature an MC with she/her pronouns as a default, and then neither tagging the content as having a gendered MC, nor adding a short line at the beginning of the post announcing MC's pronouns.

The MC in-game is gender neutral to allow for maximum player immersion into the game, even using they/them pronouns.

By creators consistently use fem pronouns for MC alienates and invalidates the rest of the fandom who do not use those pronouns.

How does this relate to Chey? It's her "carrot/broccoli" commentary.

It's a jab at the community within the fandom who do not conform to the gender they were assigned with at birth.

It's also invalidating to those who are questioning their own gender.

"These whiny ass bitches" are people within the same community who are just asking for equal representation and validation.

By equating pronouns to fucking vegetables, she is disrespecting the human right to question your own gender and telling us how much she doesn't care because this doesn't affect her.

2. Falcon546. Since Sunday, Falcon went out of their way to comment "#/10" on 3 of Chey's fics on AO3, rating the pieces on a scale of 1 to 10.

This is a dick move.

I also don't know the extent of if there were any more pieces falcon commented on. There could have been more "#/10" comments Falcon left that have since been deleted.

As a reader, you're allowed to not like things. You are also allowed to ask the creator to add more tags and cw/tw if they missed something.

Taking it upon yourself to leave a comment ranking the piece's quality without initially providing any sort of feedback is a dick move.

HOWEVER

If you're going to post something you created on a public forum, you have to be ready to receive negative comments. It's the Internet. Just like a movie coming out in theatres, not everyone is going to like it and will feel like they have to vocalize their opinions.

It might feel cathartic to stoop to their level and be petty, but that's also how emotions start running high and things are said that you can't take back.

Granted, Falcon did provide some criticism, but Chey's initial response of "what I'm hearing is 'this isn't the way I would write it' but that's okay" is a good response. But everything after that was a trainwreck.

3. When shit hit the fan, almost 14 hours ago

Remember carrot/broccoli from earlier? The reblog from obeyme-confessions?

Have you also seen her apology?

The fact that the "broccoli/carrot" was used TWICE in such a short span of time shows IT WAS NOT A MISTAKE.

CHEY IS ONLY SORRY SHE GOT CAUGHT.

Her "apology" is so insincere it's laughable. If you want to be an ally, it's your responsibility to research and learn who you're standing with and what it means to them to be part of the LGBTQIA+ community. June is called PRIDE MONTH for a reason.

The trans community you've invalidated and disrespected because you used something sacred to them as the butt of a joke do not owe you an apology.

4. The transphobia, acephobia, and ableist content.

t wasn't until after I started this post that I found out about the rest of Chey's headcanons that only prove to add fuel to the dumpsterfire of a lie that is her claim to being an LGBTQIA+ ally.

July 15, 2020, MC is non-binary/trans

July 15, 2020, MC is asexual

July 24, 2020 MC has autism

2 fucking days ago MC is struggling with their gender/sexuality

If you can't figure out what's wrong about these pictures, why these reactions are harmful and invalidating as fuck, you need to stop writing about shit you clearly don't understand and research actual ways you can be a supportive ally.

Given that Chey is still completely ignorant of her toxic ideology, she has not yet put in the work to being an ally.

Ignorant allies do more harm than good.

Chey, you have invalidated us. You've told us that we don't matter to you. That you don't give two shits about why this is so important to us. You can shove your apology up your ass. In fact, stop apologizing. Your apologies are like fruit flies; unwanted, abundant, and serve no purpose.

Be better.

[glassprism]

Am I the only person who doesn't think RK playing the Phantom as autistic was offensive? Most of the takes I've heard are from neurotypicals and as someone who's on the spectrum and struggles daily because of it, I feel kind of alienated from the fandom and a little bit like a horrible person. I completely understand why people find the performance itself offensive, but some have really taken his statements about it in the worst faith possible.

"He definitely is not an evil person.  He is a victim of circumstance and environment.  He has been conditioned with such prejudice in his life.  I believe the Phantom to be Autistic.  I think he has a form of Aspergers Syndrome.  When the Phantom kills I truly don't believe it to be premeditated.  He's just losing control.  Again, this all stems from his social conditioning.  He's never felt a mother's love, nor his father.  He has had to become a man without being a child." -Payvand.com

Why should this make me angry? I get that RK is neurotypical, and saying that the Phantom is "just losing control" when he kills certainly lends itself to unfavorable interpretation, but he immediately follows that up by saying it's due to his "social conditioning," not that a propensity for murder is somehow a symptom of autism.

If it is commonly understood by the fandom that Erik's deformity is not the literal reason for his wrongdoings, and it was the horrible treatment he received because the world looked upon him as inhuman that led to that, why should we assume that an actor who was portraying him wouldn't apply the same idea to autism? I'm not just some rabid stan who's mad that their senpai is being attacked. RK is lightyears away from being my favorite Phantom and he honestly seems kind of douchey, but why should I jump to the worst conclusion about his reasoning?

I really get the feeling that NT people who are mad about this don't know what it's like to be autistic, and think that we can't be violent or bad people. It feels very infantilising to me. I've been told I sound dead or robotic time and time again. I've had my comfort object lost or stolen and been treated like a threat when I get upset about it. I've had my needs and concerns downplayed, even by my family members. I've had relationships fall apart completely when the other person learns what I really am. There are times when I literally don't feel human because of the way I'm perceived. I find the idea that RK relied solely on stereotypes to influence his idea of the character, frankly, insulting, because it means that I must be a stereotype.

Hello! Thank you so much for your thoughts.

First, let me just say that nobody in the fandom deserves to feel alienated because of their opinions. I've seen people who have definitely resonated with Ramin Karimloo's Phantom because he portrayed the character as autistic, and while they may not be as "big" in the fandom, they certainly exist. As with many fandom spaces, you just have to find your people, whatever that may be!

As for the rest, I actually wasn't comfortable with answering it because I am exactly that neurotypical who is mad about it. So I went to a Discord server I am in for thoughts, and one of the members there, who has autism, wrote a response which they generously gave me permission to share. I don't know if they want me to share their Tumblr handle as well, so I haven't, but if they do, I'm sure they'll reblog this so you can continue the conversation with them. Anyway, here was their message in response to your ask:

I think the most important thing to remember is that no community is a monolith. There are people who will find certain portrayals or headcanons offensive, and others who feel comforted by them, and a lot of it depends on life experience. I could say “it’s ableist to assume that autism makes people more capable of violence because it plays into harmful stereotypes,” OR “it’s ableist to act like autistic people are never violent because there are violent autistic people and they deserve representation and dignity too,” and both of these statements would be true in various ways and settings.

For me, it’s more of an issue of discussing when (and if) non-autistic people get to draw these conclusions, and under what circumstances. On one hand, it’s very hard for non-autistic actors to play autistic characters, and can also be frustrating when there ARE autistic actors who aren’t getting work. One of the other, there’s a huge difference in impact between Ramin Karimloo, who is relatively unknown outside of theatre, watching a documentary on autism (which, it’s my understanding is what he did) and saying “I think the Phantom is autistic,” and then attempting to portray it (even badly) in a long established show than, as an example, an extremely famous actor (Benedict Cumberbatch) saying, effectively, “yeah I decided Frankenstein’s Monster in this brand new play is autistic so I went to an autistic school and watched people for research. They were just, like, pissing and shitting and had no understanding of the world. Anyways it’s offensive to call Sherlock Holmes autistic because he’s intelligent and that could give false hope to the pathetic shit-slinging autistics.”

That is. Not as hyperbolic as I wish it was.

So anyways, it’s mostly like. Is what Ramin Karimloo said/did ignorant, in kind of bad taste, and arguably offensive? Yeah. Is it a valid reason for some people to feel uncomfortable about him/his take on the Phantom? Yeah. Should it get him thrown into Ableism Jail for all time? Probably not.

As far as headcanoning Erik as autistic goes. I’m autistic. I see Erik as autistic. I HIGHLY disagree with the idea that morally good characters are inherently good rep and that morally gray or bad characters are inherently bad rep. For some autistic people, seeing villains portrayed as autistic can feel othering or even triggering. I’m not (generally, with a few notable exceptions) one of those people, but I get why they feel that way, even if I don’t agree. I feel a lot of solidarity with autistic people who want to see the side of autism that is messy and difficult and yes, sometimes violent, in characters they relate to. I feel a lot of solidarity with people who don’t feel human because of their autism. As a person who is frequently told “but you don’t SEEM autistic” by people who have never seen me have a meltdown and hit my head on stuff, I absolutely understand that impulse. Even more so, I think more people need to understand that some autistic people ARE violent or otherwise considered socially unpalatable, and that those people do deserve to feel represented.

I also think that for some people, it’s kind of a defense mechanism. Ironically, the first time I ever really heard someone discuss autism it was my brother, who said, “the Phantom is probably autistic.” I asked him what that meant and he told me “being autistic means you’re a r*tarded genius,” right before he told me about Rain Man. The day I watched the episode of House M.D., where House gets told “you’re not autistic. You don’t even have Aspergers. You wish you did. It would exempt you from rules. Give you freedom. Absolve you of responsibility,” is the day I started headcanoning House as autistic. Sometimes we feel like have to hold onto it or say it first, especially with villains.

If I see an autistic person who headcanons an antagonistic character as autistic, I assume there’s something in that narrative that resonates with them. If I see a non-autistic person do it, I tend to disengage. Non autistic people doing it isn’t necessarily wrong, but it may come with an unwanted response from autistic people.

It’s like Harry Potter. My best friend is transfem (they/she pronouns) and they love Harry Potter. They don’t monetarily support JKR, but they also haven’t covered their HP tattoo. I don’t get it AT ALL. I recoil from Harry Potter. We’re both within two of the specific demographics JKR is doing the most damage to (transfems and autistic transmascs), and we have very different responses. When it comes to my friend, I don’t feel comfortable policing her relationship with that thing. On the other hand, a cis person can tell me they’re an ally all day long, but I usually disengage with cis people who hate JKR but just HAVE to go to Wizarding World, or whatever. Like maybe you’re the world’s BEST trans ally aside from that. But when you make that kind of choice, you accept the consequences and boundaries from those communities. I’m somewhat uncomfortable with Ramin Karimloo’s Phantom for that exact reason.

Ultimately what it comes down to is that autism is a spectrum, and by necessity autistic people aren’t monoliths and will have different opinions and needs. One isn’t inherently better or more important than the other, but needs still need to be met and boundaries still need to be respected, and those things can be both contradictory and necessary.

I hope that helps, and again, thank you to the person who wrote the above for their wonderful response as well.

[petalstem]

Finished my reread of the first arc! Sorry this post got a lot longer than I expected, I rambled angrily about ableism there for a paragraph, so be warned. My thoughts are:

The good parts

-Honestly, held up pretty much as expected! I don't think its any worse than when I read it as a kid, at least not in writing quality (There's other things about it I find downright despicable but the writing quality isn't that)

-I appreciate Runningwind, honestly. He's THE most minor character ever but I like him. He's my new favorite background guy alongside Tallpoppy and Woollytail

-The ThunderClan forest fire chapters are legitimately still VERY good, they feel intense and real, as is Yellowfangs death honestly the highlight of the arc

And the bad parts

-Hoooly fucking shit is the ableism something to behold. I already knew the series was ableist, I feel like we as a fandom already know, but I guess I forgot just HOW much it is and how it's just constant. And I feel like not enough people talk about how fucking AWFUL Firestar is to Brightheart. When she's initially moved to the elders den, 1. It is very explicitly said to be a choice SHE has to make, and neither he nor Cinderpelt will force her

2. It's less "she can't be a warrior so she's going to be an elder" and more implied to be that she's not ready to return to being a warrior yet, and she probably still needs someone to watch over her for now, but it doesn't have to be Cinderpelt, so they let a still mourning Speckletail help with that

But when its time for her to move into the warriors den, FIRESTAR ACTIVELY SAYS HE DOESN'T KNOW IF SHE SHOULD, and, in singlehandedly one of the most insulting things I've seen in this series, he tells Cloudtail that since he doesn't have an apprentice, he can train Brightheart instead, and that he has to keep an eye on her, and continues to think to himself how she'll never be a "true warrior". It is downright baffling and nightmarish how they take any and all agency away from Brightheart, who, I forgot to add, IS SITTING RIGHT NEXT TO THEM DURING THIS CONVERSATION. She is treated like a helpless child and her boyfriend is essentially told to watch her like she's a toddler, and this is basically NEVER addressed. Yes, she does become, as Firestar thinks, a "true warrior", but I don't care how many cool fighting moves Brightheart does, the narrative never acts as if Firestars constant thinking of her as needing supervision and not being as "useful" as her other Clanmates as being wrong. It legitimately disgusts me, and that's not even the first time. I honestly had less of a reaction to the ableism against Cinderpelt and Snowkit because I was already expecting it and remembered the majority, but I guess I just forgot how bad it was to Brightheart and it caught me entirely off guard. How the books have the understanding that "Lostface" is an insulting name but calling Brightheart "not a true warrior" is just fine is absolutely beyond me

-Why is the message of the final book "cats without religion are morally corrupt". Maybe I'm reading into it wrong but Barley literally says BloodClans weakness is not believing in StarClan, and says because they don't have the warrior code, they neglect kits, the sick, and the elderly

-The hypocrisy of StarClan in coming books angers me so ungodly much. There is an entire passage where StarClan claims they can't intervene with BloodClan because StarClan can not control the living cats, and a cats choice to either believe in StarClan or not is what makes them free. Only for later books to prove THATS bullshit and StarClan can 100% manipulate and lie to cats to force them to do things, as well as actively scold and yell at them for breaking the code

-This is a minor nitpick but Tawnypaw's reasoning for leaving ThunderClan is uh. Stupid as shit. The reasoning itself is fine, but you're telling me its WORSE to be judged than to join a violent tyrant where children her age are killed for nothing? You couldn't have just waited a few months until either Firestar or Tigerstar won and THEN made your decision? I think, narratively, Tawnypaw DID need to join ShadowClan, but having her do so IMMEDIATELY after the scene of the cats rescuing the RiverClan cats makes her seem like she's either a moron or she's okay with what Tigerstars doing as long as he's not bullying her

-Another nitpick but there's a continuity error in Yellowfangs death scene where Fireheart thinks about how Yellowfang doesn't know he knows Brokentail was her son, but she literally told him when they took Brokentail prisoner so that's not true

My favorite characters were Runningwind, Longtail, Yellowfang, and Sandstorm, and my least favorite were Greystripe for all of Fire and Ice specifically, Leopardstar, and Dustpelt. Honorable mentions go to Bluestar (Of course, Bluestars great, also she was right StarClan fucking sucks), Mistyfoot (Despite how much I hate modern Mistystar, Mistyfoot in this arc is pretty flippant with the rules tbh, and I like it! I also love that she and Silverstream are besties), Darkstripe (LOVE how pathetic he is), Whitestorm (He's a LOT older than I remember him being, also while he was written with the idea he's Bluestars nephew, I like to think that Firestar just doesn't know they're related and thinks they're besties, I honestly love how kind and patient is Whitestorm is with Bluestar even at her lowest) and Tallstar (I know he's written with the authors not intending that he was gay for Firehearts dad but every time he's nice to him I like to think its because he sees Jake in him)

TL;DR Overall, I DID enjoy my reread. I love this series to bits, and while it has some MASSIVE problems I can't and won't overlook, the good parts are frequent and well done, and I genuinely think it earns a good portion of its emotional payoffs

[itsclydebitches]

(Not "Tai's Joke Anon" but on that topic) I agree with you on pretty much everything: Yang being very obviously a victim in her situation and not responsible for what Adam did doesn't mean Yang is no longer reckless. Ruby growing increasingly irresponsibly reckless in V6-onward doesn't mean Yang is no longer reckless. Ruby and Blake having made strategical blunders doesn't mean Yang is no longer reckless. Weiss's "accidental magic" emotional semblance use doesn't mean Yang is no longer reckless. It feels silly to act like Yang can't have flaws just because she was a victim and others also have flaws. I think you're right about all this.

That said, I do have to agree with the other anon that I think Tai's 'joke' was horrific. I was shocked and angry when I first heard it, and not even writing Yang to laugh made me feel any better about it. I recognize that humor is a valid way for people to cope, but imo, it should be up to the victim to decide when joking is appropriate (like in Yang and Nora's arm-wrestling match) and not the able-bodied person currently yelling at her about not being ready for the world. Plus, even if it was okay for him to joke about her situation, the joke itself seemed heartless. He not only is using humor to speak over her and tell her what she is and isn't capable of, but he throws in a jab at her intelligence, too.

I like Tai. I really do. He's probably my favorite RWBY parent. And I liked Yang's recovery arc, outside of that line. And I have a lot of respect for you (and this hasn't made me lose any or anything, jsyk) and I agree with basically everything else you've said. But I'm sorry, I think that joke was crossing a line, and while I agree that it isn't entirely fair to judge 4-5 by 6-8 standards, I do think that the recent pattern of blatant, admitted ableism in the Penny and Ironwood arcs, with the added bonus line of Yang telling the audience that humanity stops at flesh and everything else is 'just extra,' makes the joke seem even less like an unfortunate blunder on RT's part, and more like the first sign in what would eventually develop into a long history of ableist writing that, at this point, can no longer be denied.

Aww thanks, anon! 💜 Yeah, as said, it’s a very contentious choice and it looks less and less like a positive the more RWBY goes on. Back in Volume 4 it was a (mostly) isolated moment that some fans enjoyed and others absolutely did not. However, four years later, it’s now a part of a pattern. For some that moment, if it was ever okay, will retroactively be made worse by what comes later (particularly Yang’s “extra” line). For some, if it was ever okay, it will be an example of when RWBY was writing disability better, further proof of how far the show has fallen. For some, if it was never okay, Volumes 5-8 just made it a thousand times worse. Congratulations, RWBY. You took what we thought was a one-off misstep and turned it into a whole philosophy. Nice work!

For me, I’m.. all the camps at once? lol. I enjoy nuance in media and that moment, for me, does have nuance. In that yes, we’re supposed to believe it has crossed a line. There’s a reason why the scene gives us shocked expressions. Not just Yang’s but Port and Oobleck’s too. Omg, how could you say that? 

And then we get our answer. The answer is not, as we assume in this moment, that Tai is a horrible person who insults his daughter without cause, but rather because Tai knows his daughter. He’s making a point here. Yang is arguing that she’s an adult now, ready for the real world, and Tai is arguing that this doesn’t mean she’s ready to run off on her own. If she honestly believes that, she’s lost those braincells along with the arm. He isn’t telling her she isn’t capable, he’s telling her (as my previous posts have argued) that she’s thinking recklessly right now. The implication is that of course she’s smarter than that. Smart is what he expects of her. So stop for a moment and consider whether what you’re saying is, in fact, smart. And provides that reminder in a way that normalizes her arm. After this will be the first time Yang has really talked about it, after it became something to joke about, not just tiptoe around. 

Things have been escalating, they’re yelling, Tai makes his point via an insult... and with a smile to lessen the sting.  

And then Yang smiles too. 

(Though I also think there’s a case to be made that neither really meant their “argument.” It feels very posturing to me, the chance to just go at each other for the fun of it, not because they actually feel that strongly about either position. It’s a form of play between them.) 

I agree wholeheartedly that the victim should be in control of the humor and that’s perhaps my biggest criticism here. The scene is meant to show how well Tai knows his daughter, he’s so sure this will cut the tension... but what if he’s wrong? This could have indeed backfired spectacularly and then yeah, Tai would need to apologize for that and not repeat such behavior in the future. In a perfect world no one would ever make that kind of misstep, but people (and characters) aren’t perfect. I like that Tai is shown to take a risk with humor. That he’s not some generic Good Father Figure who only approaches trauma with the Certified Approved Approaches. This risk makes him feel human and, notably, it paid off. He chose his intimate knowledge of Yang’s personality over the generalized advice, “Treat someone with that trauma with the upmost respect and care.” That works for me personally  — emphasis on personally  — because I’m like Yang. I have friends and family who say things that sound so unimaginably insulting to outsiders about the most sensitive subjects in my life... but that’s because they know me and know I’m cool with it. That, in a weird and human way, it helps me to process the horrible things going on. Tai knows Yang and knows she’d be cool with it too. And she is! Not to attribute agency to fictional character written by, as we’ve seen, authors with a very iffy handle on disability, but I think it’s important to let Yang speak for herself. The scene is written to show that she enjoys this, that it’s what she needs, and it’s always felt weird to me to go, “No, it’s horrible and never should have happened” when clearly Yang draws a benefit and gives it her stamp of approval. The nuance is that sometimes people cope in ways that don’t work for others, are insulting to others, may even seem harmful to others... but if it works for Yang, as a disabled woman, who are we to say, “No, you’re doing disability wrong”?  

But of course, that’s all in that context of our incredibly flawed writers who, as far as I know, are not disabled themselves. So I 1000% understand why others are not at all comfortable with this scene. And certainly no one needs to be. I do want to be clear, in such a meta-filled blog, that my own love of analyzing this show is by no means meant as a, “This is the right interpretation.” I don’t think the “right” interpretation exists, let alone for a moment as charged as this one, trying to represent huge swaths of people at once. I think a scene can cross a line and be a powerful choice simultaneously, depending on who is watching it and what that person needs. Like the question of whether Ruby is endangering people or heroically saving them, whether Ironwood had a phenomenal downfall or was slammed into OOC territory, whether RWBY’s “rule of cool” creates an inconsistent mess or a fun and thrilling adventure not burdened by what it put down before... so much of how we experience media is a result of not the media itself, but us. Our experiences, our normality, our needs, whether we’re choosing to read a scene on its own or in the context of a whole series. Since no two people are the same and, even if they were, they might be coming at this with different intentions, a single scene can read radically differently to them both. 

That and my own enjoyment of the moment aside though, yeeeeeeah, the more RWBY messes up its disability rep the more it reflects badly on... well, everything. At this point, the blatant problems are a blight on the current volumes, the past volumes, the previously good rep, previously bad rep, previously debatable rep, and everything in between. 

[bisluthq]

😞😞😞

TBH you're very convincing and I feel very sick and stressed out right now. My head hurts

But I feel like you're trying to trick me. And like you're lying to me. I don't want to become a Swiftgron or Haylor or Toe, I don't like any of those ships, I only like Kaylor.

I feel like you're only being nice to me because you want me to become a Gaylor

I don't know how emails work that much. How do I know somebody else didn't send them pretending to be her?

She would never ever do that, ever. I know she wouldn't because I've followed her since I was 13 years old, and she's always been nice to me and gives me the 🎯 in my asks a lot and the ☺️ face.

She's never been mean to me except for once but that was my fault for asking her a question that was stupid, but then I said sorry and she forgave me for it

I can't picture her ever doing that. I think maybe you're not lying on purpose. Maybe you just got confused with someone else, and you think it was TTB who did all of those things, but it was actually maybe Wh*ler (who I hate) or ind*stryhearts (who I hate too). They both made fun of some of my asks multiple times, and they're rude.

Maybe Wh*ler and ind*stryhearts are trying to take TTB's place, and so they're framing her

I don't know... I know TTB's a good person. I always saw her as like another mom or like a teacher that I like. Because she cares about us, I think

She doesn’t care about you hun. I don’t want you to be a Gaylor. I don’t need you to follow me. I’m literally just showing you reality. And I know it hurts. And I know it sucks. And I know it feels like a betrayal.

But it’s literally not about a ship.

This woman is a bully. You need to understand that. She is legitimately terrible. She’s antisemitic (she has bullied a 16 year old before and that girl was just like you - she fucking LOVED her and couldn’t believe that TTB wouldn’t hear her or listen to her when she asked her to stop). You remind me a lot of TTB4 tbh. Like that girl COULD NOT UNDERSTAND how her favorite blogger could turn around and threaten to doxx her. It genuinely didn’t compute for her. And it hurt her SO MUCH when people she had been friends with, people she’d vibed with, turned around and took this antisemitic bitch’s side.

TTB is ableist (she has bullied people for mental health issues before). TTB is homophobic (bottom is not an insult and posting grossed out gifs after discussing supposedly gay men isn’t okay). TTB is racist (she made BLM about Kaylor, and she fetishized mixed race babies, and she spoke about Christian Owens in the Lover MV in problematic ways).

Also your fave should never be mean to you for asking a stupid question especially if you follow for a long time. Like... it’s not hard to be kind. You shouldn’t have to apologize to blogs when they dislike a question. You shouldn’t be made to feel that way. You, yourself, have identified a way she’s... not nice. How do you know you won’t piss her off one day - you’ve said you’ve needed to apologize to her once before - and she’ll turn around and out you? Email your parents - she has done that - or your school - she did that too?

You deserve better. Your ship deserves better. She is a fucking MENACE and you are more than capable of clowning and creating content and enjoying the fuck out of Kaylor without her because she adds NO VALUE she is just a net negative toxic presence. She legit outed someone and cost her her friendship. And if she’d sent the email to that girl’s dad, she would’ve possibly endangered her life. She has bullied mentally ill people. She has yelled at Black folk when they were cross with Tay about her inaction during BLM and she twisted it to be about Kaylor (that’s not right, BLM is very important and has NOTHING to do with Tay’s love life).

She is FAR WORSE than either of the blogs you mention. She is so rude at best and bigoted and dangerous. My dude she outed someone and endangered her life.

You don’t need to bat this hard for her hun.

You deserve better.

And no I’m not saying that because I want you to follow me or join my ship haha I don’t even have a ship. I just know you deserve better babe.

[fierceawakening]

I'm half expecting the next trend to be going around yelling at victims of extreme abuse about how ableist it is that they called their abuser a violent alcoholic, because if they do it's obvious they hate all addicts under the sun and want them to die. I have a stigmatized disorder too and I find the notion of excusing my shitty behavior by insisting I can't help my neurodivergence to be insulting. unpopular opinions I guess.

That’s how I feel about it too, and why I was initially just... extremely baffled by the whole thing.

Also there are some people who participated in the early iterations of it that I actually did kind of worry were hiding something. They’re not around now and I don’t want to callout post but i was very much originally posting in the spirit of “hey, this popular person seems shady to me. What they’re saying seems off and I can’t entirely articulate why but danger Will Robinson” I heard at that time from some other people who also felt they’d seen those folks manipulate or hurt others. Didn’t post specifics because I didn’t want to contribute to a rumor mill or get those people harassed more.

But the discussion kind of morphed for me into defending writing off sketchy people without being sure of everything they did, because callous people (low-empathy was the word in my books) tend to be likely to do multiple bad things, vs. other people being like “how dare you judge someone until you’re sure what they did!”

My problem with that being that... a lot of times manipulative people are really good at making something bad sound sort of okay. Like the example in the older discussion was “I laugh when my cat falls down because I have low empathy but I still love my cat.”

And at first I was like “oh, people sometimes laugh at odd stuff, gotcha.”

But later I thought more about it and realized that using the example of being amused at other beings’ pain as an explanation for why low empathy is neutral? Didn’t seem right to me, seemed like minimizing/excusing sadistic traits (rather than acknowledging them and describing how the person redirects them so as not to hurt other beings.)

But the more I tried to talk about that, how sometimes you know something ain’t right before you can put into words why it bothers you, the more I got called ableist.

Which freaks me out because to me that implies that neurodivergent people never have accurate “spidey senses” and shouldn’t listen to them if something isn’t seeming right.

And that triggers me GODAWFULLY as someone who 1) is not neurotypical and 2) was abused as a child and kept trying to articulate “something is wrong with what this woman is doing to us” but didn’t have words that convinced other adults it was serious.

...Being subtly called a Nazi’s new, though. I feel special.

[hippityhoppityyourenowmyproperty]

Reset!Rant (part 5)

Gemini Ascendant

Chapter: 1

Max: "Are they always like this?" Helen nodded and turned the page of her bodice-buster romance novel. "This is the status quo for them. Bart gets bored. Bart annoys Thad. Thad overreacts. Chaos, followed by a scuffle in the back yard. Boys come in dirty and exhausted. Repeat."

She forgot to mention the part about Thad abusing Bart and being the one who insults him. And getting murderous thoughts and viciously beating Bart up is something a little more inexcusable than just overreacting, as Helen puts it.

Thad stared at his costume that he still held in his hands. "I don't think this is going to fit, either." At least Bart was good for making the embarrassing mistakes first, so he didn't have to.

Sums up pretty well all that Thad sees in him. Because despite proving his worth and helping out numerous times in this story, Thad still refuses to acknowledge how essential Bart was to the mission and how helpful he can be.

Thad was not letting go of the subject. "You used to just cook out of box or can, too," He accused Bart. "Well yeah, but I leveled up." He stuck his tongue out at his brother. Thad's arm shot out and he grabbed Bart's tongue, eliciting a yelp of surprise.

This is another one of those scenes that is creepy and makes me feel very uncomfortable. This is a physical threat and it's aking towards physical abuse. Bart is playfully teasing him, and Thad sees that as such a big threat to his position of power that he feels the need to physically intimidate him and maybe even elicit pain. His actions aren't justified. They're not okay.

Thad complied and Max sighed. "Can't you two keep your hands to yourself for one day?"

Can't any of you see that Thad is always the one who starts fights and gets physical first? If you want to stop their fights, then maybe start by punishing the one who starts them.

Chapter: 2

"It's your own fault that they don't like you." Thad ducked a flying shirt and smirked at Bart's angry glower. "You let your nature get the better of you." Without lowering his chin, he sneered down at his twin. "You always do."

Weird, I could've sworn that you were the one who wasn't able to control his angry outbursts one chapter ago and tried to hurt Bart because he was teasing you. You're the one who resorts to abusing Bart because you can't control your anger, so get off his back for being impulsive. He's better at not letting his impulses control himself than you are, you're just too deluded to understand that. Impulsive anger is still impulsive.

Helen leaned against the counter and looked Thad in the eye. "He's a little excited right now, and we all know what happens when he's wound up like that. None of his friends can keep up with him if he gets too enthusiastic." Thad knelt down to rub Dox between his ears. "Fine, I'll babysit him."

Yeah, great idea Helen, give the person who's ripping on Bart and abusing him even more power over him, what could possibly go wrong? Isn't Bart the one who constantly had to stop Thad from doing stupid, reckless stuff because he was mad?

Max: "Do you see what I'm aiming for? Helen has done wonders in turning a potential Cain and Abel into Castor and Pollux. Now, we have to make sure that it sticks.

Sure, except for that Pollux actually loved his brother and gave up his immortality so that he could be with Castor, and that he wasn't an abusive jerk. Thad is the opposite of Pollux. He would never sacrifice something for Bart, he would let him die if it wasn't for Max. He's callous and toxic to Bart. Helen didn't make Thad less hostile towards Bart, if anything she encouraged his vile behavior. She doesn't deserve credit for this. Making sure that it sticks means that you are keeping up an abusive relationship. Max should work with Thad on his behavior if he really cared about Bart and their whole team dynamic.

Chapter: 3

Anita: "I remember us joking around that you couldn't be normal if you tried."

"Hey! I can too!" Bart glared at Thad, who was snickering at his expense. "Like you're any better." "I am", Thad replied with a grin. " I can fake being normal just as easily as I can fake being you. How else do you think I get through the day?" Bart ticked off the items on his fingers. "Picking on me, chatting with your internet girlfriend, playing with Dox..."

Thad really has a problem with self reflection in this. Then there's the immediately trying to embarrass Bart for his short comings, and saying that he's so much better than Bart. He's condescending as ever.

And not being able to fake being normal a.k.a. neurotypical is funny because..?

Thad braced against the wall and raised a golden eyebrow. "It doesn't look so much like he's joining it, as it seems more like he's owning it."

Kon's sudden frown and the telekinetic ejection of Bart was just the payoff he was looking for.

Because when Thad is in company of Bart's friends and therefore can't hurt Bart, he will try everything in his power to get them to hurt or humiliate Bart for him.

Bart: I don't get these guys. They don't act like zombies are supposed to. They're tearin' stuff up, yeah, but the're not biting people or eating brains." Thad leaned over Greta's sketchbook with his hands folded behind his back. "Then maybe they're not zombies, moron."

While casually calling him a moron (for the fifth time, by the way) Bart's friends are standing right next to him. They say nothing in response to Thad being an absolute dick to him.

Thad decided that he had enough of Greta play fashion designer and je hovered over Bart's shoulder to supervise the monitor. "Use the traffic cameras, idiot. You can follow the pseudo-zombies and extrapolate their path. Then you can tell your team where to head them up."

"I am using the traffic cameras!" Bart snapped back.

"You're not doing a very good job of it."

"Yeah? I don't see you doing this job!" Bart challenged.

Thad sneered down at him and countered, "I'm not part of your little team, and I wasn't asked to sit here."

This is the very definition of senseless criticizing and abuse that's disguised as advice. He's chewing Bart out for supposedly not doing a good job, but offers no help whatsoever. He's criticizing just because he can. He reigns Bart in for mistakes that don't even exist. Despite saying "You suck at this" He gives him no advice how to do it better. Imagine having to live with someone like that. Imagine having to listen to someone ripping on you for everything you did, even when there was nothing that you did wrong. There will always be something the abuser will be upset about, whether that thing exists or is just made up in order to be a reason to judge and criticizise the victim. Everything the victim does is somehow false.

As always, there's the put down directed at Bart's intelligence.

"He did," Thad grumbled. "I wish I could say that I had no obligation to save him, but I made a promise to Max that I would look after my idiot brother."

This confirms that Thad really would let Bart die and/or suffer right in front of him if Max wouldn't have told him to do otherwise. Also another put down.

Greta: "You're not moving very fast for a speedster saving his brother." Thad shrugged and kept his eyes on the monitot. "I'll let him dangle a bit just so he appreaciates my timely intervention more. Bart's a little dense." The last word came out with a derisive grimace.

He's risking Bart getting hurt or killed in a fight just so that Bart will learn to appreactiate his time more. Thad is the one who needs to learn to not take Bart's support for granted. He's the extremely demanding one who wants more than he deserves. In his eyes, Bart is a worthless idiot who needs to show more respect to him. And don't forget the insult. Thad wants everyone to understand how shitty Bart is because he has ADHD.

Conclusion

From the very start of their relationship Thad is a manipulative abuser who uses every opportunity he gets to ridicule and belittle Bart and continually wears his self esteem down. The lack of punishment Thad receives from his parental figuers for his damaging behavior not only turn Helen, Wally, Max and Jay into neglectful and borderline abusive guardians, but also lead to his toxic demeanor intensifying. The lack of indignance the characters show when faced with Thad very obviously and aggressively abusing Bart right in front of them makes it seem like abuse is something normal and acceptable, and not something that is contemptible and needs to have consequences. Moreover, the fanfiction is ableist in that it paints insults that are directly meant to degrade ND people for being mentally disabled (such as r*tard and shortbus) as harmless and appropriate swear words for that group of people. It is infuriating that so many people praise it as 'the best fanfic about Bart and Thad out there with the most accurate characterisations of them' when the mental torture he inflicts on Bart is objectively so plain obvious. I think I know why the readers of this work failed to recognize the maltreatment. Sibling abuse isn't as known as parental abuse is, and even more people deny that it exists. Many people excuse abusive behaviors in sibling relationships because they're under the false assumption that siblings can't be abusive. They're even harder to convince that it is abuse when the siblings are twins and don't have a significant difference in age and physical appearance. Abuse always includes a power imbalance, and you can definetly see that in Bart's and Thad's relationship. It starts in that Thad is chronologically and mentally way older than Bart. He is also more knowledgable and well versed in combat situations and fighting. Through the use of intimidation, put downs and threats Thad enhances that already existing imbalance and makes it easier for himself to abuse Bart.

This version of Thad is one of the most evil, reprehensible and crude monsters I had the misfortune of meeting in fiction. Living with someone like him is a nightmare and through the entire work I felt bad for Bart. Despite what this work is trying to make you belive, abuse is never justified, no matter who is the victim and who is the perpetrator.

[didon]

I'm going to have to argue your point here.

I don't know where you go to look for your Buddie content but clearly it's in the wrong place. The Buddie fandom I know has angst sure, but it's also filled with descriptions of romantic gestures, of kinks, of au and more! Angst is far from the only thing being written and being discussed let me tell you that.

Name me one fandom without angst though. Yeah life is fun and we all want to have happy stories where nothing wrong ever happen but that's not realistic. Plus, writing has always been an outlet for people to deal with their emotions. I know that the more depressed I get, the more angst you can find in my idea and in my stories. It's not done consciously but my writing is a reflection of me. And for the broken home part, there are a lot of tumblr posts that give reasoning as to why people think that the Buckleys were not good parents, that they might even have been abusive and since abuse come in more than one shape and form you can't police how people write it.

If you didn't know how tumblr work, it will post certain things in tags even if you don't actually put any meaning that post like yours can actually end up in the Buddie tag so yeah you have to expect shippers to react badly then. Especially since a lot of us are queer and you are acting like we're crap you step in. I'm a queer woc so whenever people call me racist or queerphobic I take offense because I have struggled with those my entire life.

Concerning your story, I want to tell you that it was incredibly written and that you are a good author. However, maybe it wasn't your intention, but it can be triggering. Just because you say it's meant to be an empowering message, seeing queer people once again be targeted may not feel that way for a lot of people. You can't force them to see it your way and you can't get mad at them for how it makes them feel. You put your work out there and people are allowed to feel how they feel about it.

I'm sorry you got anonymous hate though. Especially since I know that a lot of it has been going around in the 911 fandom especially toward Maddie's fans and Buddie shippers. No matter what is the reasoning behind, anon hate always suck.

A little thing though toward the recent trend of gatekeeping certain ships, fandoms and even communities: who the fuck gave you the right to do so? The fun part of fandoms is that everybody is included especially women and queer people who basically laid the foundation on which any fandom stands today. Unless someone is shipping a child with an adult or a gay character with someone of the opposite gender, you are not allowed to police who can or cannot ship stuff. There is no fandom police driving around and arresting people for shipping stuff especially since women have been pioneering queer ships for a long time. Especially since woc have done more than their share of shipping white couples at their own detriment and now are simply expecting the basic right of shipping whoever they want.

So, stop attacking an entire group of people based on the characters they ship because it is insulting and you are no the authority in charge here. People are allowed to ship whoever they want (that is not completely offensive that I will agree on) and just blacklist the angst tag if it displeases you that much.

If I have to deal with the ableist and misogynistic jerk on ao3 that keeps on writing insulting stories about Maddie and JLH, I think you can deal with people maybe processing their emotions and own traumas through their writing.

Seeing as barelyprolificincrediblylazy blocked me, I have no qualms making this post.

Stop being discriminatory against the members of the buddie fandom. Stop posting hate about members of the buddie fandom and then deleting said posts, over and over (source one and two). Not every person in the buddie fandom is a female, let alone a straight female. While you are allowed to feel like people are being homophobic in what interests them writing wise, being discriminatory like that is not alright.

Stop being a hypocrite. You’ve made posts earlier, but one post (x) said this:

And it’s so fucking twisted that I see writers who get all these prompts for, like, suicide attempts or self-mutilation or them beating each other up or having someone else beat them up and it makes me so, so uncomfortable. As a gay man, it also makes me feel pretty fucking unwelcome.

Yet, you literally write a story where a serial killer goes after LGTBQ+ members. And then you’re calling the one’s writing things where Buck get’s abused growing up, or dealing with depression, homophobic? Yeah, no. That’s incredibly fucking hypocritical.

Stop calling writers in the fandom who are trying to work through their own problems by writing Buck having a bad history, or bad PTSD, or depression, writers who like torture porn, homophobic. You have no fucking clue what these writers are going through, and what they’re trying to escape from when they’re writing.

Overall, just stop. You have good posts, sometimes. 

But a lot of the time your passive aggressiveness towards members of the fandom is gross, and the fact that you won’t accept people telling you not all writers are straight females, and just continue calling writers homophobic because they write things you don’t like is just as terrible.

[autism-asks]

I think really the word "stupid" comes from "drunken stupor" and really refers to someone acting like they're drunk. I don't think with that origin, it even refers to intellectual disability. That being said I totally understand people finding it offensive, but i can't say it's in the same class as the r-word. (I've been called both, and only found the latter to have dehumanizing connotations)

Also, about what i just said, it is kind of a gray area. If a word is used to describe someone who is ignorant, than it’s different from specifically referring to the intellectually disabled, and it doesn’t really have that etymology. It could depend on the context 

Ok, so stupid does not come from “drunken stupor.” The etymology of the word is as follows:

1540s, “mentally slow, lacking ordinary activity of mind, dull, inane,” from Middle French stupide (16c.) and directly from Latin stupidus “amazed, confounded; dull, foolish,” (source)

Regardless, words can be ableist (or racist or sexist or otherwise offensive) regardless of the origin. After all, it is common knowledge that “gay” originated as a word for “happy,” yet, after being adopted to refer to men attracted to men, it began to be used as a slur against them. The pleasant origins of the word are inconsequential when the current meaning is rooted in bigotry. 

Stupid is an ableist word because it is an insult based upon a lack of intelligence. Intelligence itself, at least in the ways it is currently and historically used, is an ableist concept in and of itself. For an excellent explanation of the history of intelligence and why the concept of intelligence is ableist, read this piece (which explains things far better than I am able to). 

Now, to be very clear: 

We are not saying that you can’t use the word stupid. We are not telling you how to speak or what to do. It is entirely your decision whether or not to use the word. 

This is not an attack on your free speech. You are welcome to use whatever words you want to use. 

We simply request that, when sending asks to this blog, please do not use the word stupid unless necessary (for instance, if you’re talking about a time someone called you stupid, you will likely need to use the word to convey what happened whereas saying “this game is stupid” is not necessary to convey a point and there are much better word choices that would more accurately convey your point). 

As a reminder, free speech is protection from government censorship or punishment by the government for your speech. You are not entitled to be heard on someone’s else’s blog. We are not required to post every ask we receive and will use our discretion when deciding whether or not to post asks that include ableist language. 

(As many of you have seen, however, we generally post asks that include ableist language, we simply note that the word in question is ableist and request that our followers don’t use it). 

Further, acknowledging that stupid is an ableist slur does not mean that it is equivalent to retard. Just as shit and fuck are both swears but many consider them to be of different severities, multiple words can be ableist without carrying the same weight. 

The English language is a marvelous thing full of an overabundance of words from which to choose. Why use a word that has the potential to cause pain when you have so many words you could use instead that would get across your point better?

If you intend to call someone ignorant, you can use the word ignorant (or uneducated, uninformed, uneducated, ill-informed, etc.)

If something is frustrating, you have a plethora of words to chose from (exasperating, infuriating, annoying, irritating, irksome, frustrating, etc).

If something is pointless, you could say it is ineffective, absurd, ridiculous, useless, unproductive, unnecessary, etc. 

With so many words to chose from, why limit yourself to a word that uses disability as an insult?

-Sabrina

[image description: blue and black text on a grey background with a black tree on a hill with an owl on a branch and a fish on the ground with a question mark over its head. The text reads “Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid”]