#it's just the fact that certain things must be seen as problematic or get canceled by the internet

[thecelestialsyzygy]

PSA No one gives a fuck if you don't like byler anymore. You want to come into the tag and talk about how boring they are to you now? Okay, then why are you in the tag? No one HERE cares to see your opinion unless they are just as boring as you. You want to talk about how you "checked out of the fandom" and "see all the flaws in the show now" or how "it's all been done before"? Okay congratualtions, do you want a cookie? If so here you go 🍪.

SO many stories have "cliche" elements, have been "done before", or have taken inspiration from OTHER stories. That doesn't suddenly make it bad or make you unique and different for thinking otherwise. YOU needing EVERYTHING you do in life to SOMEHOW be related to or have a political/ethical reasoning in order for you to un-like or dislike something is NOT my problem. YOU needing the internet to tell you what to think is NOT my problem. YOU not being able to separate Will's story and character from Noah Schnapp is NOT my problem. You thinking that leaving the fandom makes you a better person and therefore better than others who still choose to be in it because of your inability to separate fiction from reality and look beyond surface level is NOT my problem. Don't rain on my parade because of YOUR personal issues that you need to talk out with yourself. I'm glad some of you at least saw yourself out the door but stop being miserable about it and pretending it's a brag in the tag.

[katyspersonal]

Let me get this straight.

You were accused of several phobias based off of defense of a trans person that genuinely needed support? I just caught up on the posts and the responses and it looks like that person held some very problematic (cliche right-wing bs) beliefs but I can tell you didn’t support those beliefs per se. You wanted to prevent a trans person from being attacked during a bad spot in their life. You also didn’t mind sharing their fandom posts and being their friend because you knew that what they really needed was someone to help them. And it looks like they’re gone now?? Un-fucking-believable.

Now all of your mutuals are getting anonymously targeted by the same person that called you out? I am just a lurking witness but this person attacking you is the latent tr*nsphobe. They bullied and isolated someone for trying to help a struggling trans person. That is vile and I hope they rot in hell. Disgusting pos. Weaponizing tr*nsphobia is the number one no-no in fandom spaces and it’s a dead giveaway for who really care and who doesn’t. Helping a trans person through shit even when they are sharing harmful rhetoric takes balls. Good for you.

Gosh... This is always a heavy topic to talk about for me, especially when you put it THIS plainly. I think this is the most direct way to summarise the situation I've seen yet from a person that's not close to me (it is a compliment).

I must specify though - the "trans person" identified as trans man for about 13 years but since then revoked the term and now prefers to simply be described as GNC. In the end, he doesn't find the label he feels truly comfortable with, but this is still a person that is female in documents but male in fact and this IS an important bit in the whole story. Some people might argue that no matter what, but anyone not identifying with assigned gender counts as trans, that I get, but he has strong reservations and negative experience with the community that he shared multiple times - something the bully stalker you're referring to chose to ignore.

I think feeling identically homeless is an awful thing - he cannot line with the cis heteros (you can't just will yourself to identify as a straight girl when you are a gay man lol), but queer community has become ridiculously toxic with infights, imposing stereotypes on each other, ruining each others' spaces, cancelling each other over thoughts 'out of line', claims that someone's different experience harms the rest of the demographics upon being spoken of and god knows what else. You could figure that even in his younger years, he was excluded from his own identity and grossly bullied and misgendered because of the notion of "you do not belong in the queer community / you are not a REAL trans person if you support the [insert an opinion that has nothing to do with being trans]".

This is absolute fucking HELL from the sound of it, and I can't imagine LIVING it. You are so RIGHT for calling Alfred-chan (aka Clod Frollo, aka Slander Man) a latent transphobe. That they absolutely ARE. They do not see trans people (binary, nonbinary, generally GNC, whatever) as PEOPLE, as human beings with their own lives, history, opinions and differences. They see them as ideological soldiers in the "war" against them nasty white cissie hets and they are the EXACT garbage type that will exclude someone from their own gender/sexuality if they fail to match the checklist of strictly western libertarian opinions. They believe that to be trans or gay/lesbian is to have only certain beliefs on everything else that is not relevant. If not seeing trans people as people is not REAL transphobia, then I don't know what is.

From how you're talking you must be familiar with the cases of imposing very suffocating and concrete opinions and behaviour standards on a person for them to not be bullied as "not real" or "not proper" queer person. Some trans/GNC people will be conservative, some will be Christian, some will say 'instead of making 60 abortions just exercise protected sex already because abortion is a murder'. Because they're people, they come to different conclusions in this life, and no one should be put under obligation to assume only certain values to simply have their identity acknowledged.

ALSO from how you're talking you must be familiar with the situation of abusing the sympathy pool for selfish goals. This is exactly how #metoo got a dirty name. Alfred-chan used a very painful, vulnerable topic (transphobia) to fabricate lies and manipulate narrative with the goal of removing the bitch they disliked (yours truly) from the fandom. In general they are ridiculously nasty towards anyone that speaks against them trying to bully certain group of fans - people that clarify nuances on G3hrman as a character, insist that Maria is not "canonically a masculine lesbian" but instead is up to interpretation (that she is) or simply like G3hrmaria ship. They are terminally unable to see people (or fictional characters) outside of stereotypes and cannot acknowledge variety of identities and experiences. Yeah, I was proclaimed a witch to burn over the awful sin of trying to listen and help someone instead of throwing them away like a trash, but even before that they had quite a beef against me; they joined the fandom, lured some audience with cute mari4deline art and then decided to divide us into "normal fans" and "nasty misogynist lesbophobes without media literacy" just after the disco horse in the fandom started to die down. And I said NO YOU DON'T. Still, when they cannot harass people over reblogging a meme from me, they harass them for having an opinion on Maria that isn't 100% like their.

They do not care about trans PEOPLE, they care about trans 'identities'. These are different things. They appreciate diversity of flags and labels, but not diversity of experiences, opinions and backgrounds. And if you do not fit - you are a broken gear in the machine, you are not a proper 'soldier', and you must be thrown away. And if someone picks you up? They are the evil one, if not MORE evil. Kindness, patience and understanding are the bad things, but violence, cruelty and exclusion are what makes you trustworthy and good by their logic! True face of the fighters for "acceptance and kindness" as you can see! Fuck the Golden Ord- errrr I mean fuck this hypocritical corrupted witch-hunting nonsense.

----------------------------------------

I'd also not say that his rhetorics were "harmful". Again, Alfred-chan likes to twist what someone says to benefit their witch-hunter narrative. You can explain yourself with maximal logic, nuance and clarity, only for that person to ignore absolutely everything you said except for ONE thing they COULD twist against you, base everything around that thing and then play a victim. If you had the misfortune of knowing a 'narcissistic abusive mother' - the type of manipulation is shockingly similar. He was always ready to explain things properly but witch-hunters are not interested in removing the conflict - they are interested in removing YOU.

I also believe that free speech reveals the opinions, not creates them. Basically, opinions do not cause harm - PEOPLE do. If all it took someone to support this or that right-wing opinion is to read a post from a stranger online? Congratulations, a person found their tribe. It is GOOD if everything is revealed and everyone takes their place, it is GOOD if groups define their territories so you know where they are,. If many people believe in a "bad thing" - this means that many people ARE bad, and dividing and silencing them won't change the truth, only conceal it until it inevitably breaks through. Scaring people never changes their hearts, only makes them strike HARDER when they're ready to do so. Like what in the Brador people try to say with hating the truth revealed SO much? sdfjhdshghds

Me and him argue quite often, but when you befriend someone, it is a very bad thing to argue with them publicly. It borders the level of abusing a friend. If you have a friend that consistently shames you on public - this is not a good friend, and you should inform them that you are not their means of looking virtuous before some strangers/guests. On the brighter note - yes, the person is gone from Tumblr, but he is living his better life now. He got a therapist, he goes outside more often, he found a new passion that gave him sense of purpose, overall his life is getting better.. and he is happy that I get to be a part of it!

[akumatizedpuns]

Anti-Arguments and Rebuttals for them

Things to remember:

Antis usually want an easy target. Freelance artists/writers, small businesses, etc.

But it's easier to get angry with a smaller entity than one you know you'll never be able to do anything with/about.

A lot of antis just deeply enjoy the thrill of witch hunting. If you pay attention, you'll notice a lot of them engage in cancel culture and make memes about the topics they call themselves taking a stand for or against.

Antis will almost always use a strawman argument. Most things on this list will consist of these sorts of arguments.

1. Fiction affects reality.

The funniest and most ridiculous thing about this argument to me is that it always comes out of nowhere. No one ever says anything that implies this isn't the case, yet antis seem to think everyone except themselves are woefully unaware of this fact.

If fiction didn't affect reality, then people wouldn't use fiction to work through trauma. Obviously, fiction does affect reality.

But I somehow doubt you'll ever come across an anti who wants to ban all violence and/or disturbing content in media. No one wants Fortnite, GTA, Mortal Kombat or Call of Duty to be taken off the shelves forever. No one wants Tokyo Ghoul, Attack on Titan, Death Note or Dragon Ball to never be available to watch again. Yet all contain negative content. Negative content that is consumed by kids daily.

If an anti was really concerned about fiction and the fact that it can affect reality, they would be tackling these bigger problems. Some of these games and a lot of violent or disturbing media in general have been linked to real life attacks. There are so many more.

But I'm not gonna end my argument there and just say, 'Since antis are okay with this wrong thing, then they should be okay with that wrong thing.'

No. At the end of the day, it comes down to the person. Educate children on safe ways to consume media. If someone shipping two cousins together somehow influences a person in the real world to do something terrible, then there's something wrong with that person.

If an SA victim is dressed a certain way and get's SA'd would you blame the SA victim for how they were dressed or the perpetrator? You also have to realise that by placing the blame on fiction, you're enabling similar behavior.

Because too many times throughout history we've seen a murderer get the 'benefit of the doubt' because they were inspired by some form of media. That's no excuse.

2. If you read/write something you must condone it.

Okay, lets say I'm writing a story wherein the protagonist is assassinating a Hitler-like character or entity. The character describes their murder as though they are completely happy about it. Everyone in the story continue on with incredible lives, something that would not have been possible if not for the murder.

Let me first ask, what do you think about this? Do you hate or at the very least disagree with the way the murder was glorified/romanticized because you think that murder is reprehensible no matter what? Or do you think some form or semblance justice was served?

Neither is wrong or right. Not in fiction. Objectivity would come more into play if this were a real situation, though.

But just because I, the author, decided to write it from the character's prespective doesn't mean I condone murder. That didn't mean that I didn't get to acquire any insight on the possible prespective of the character. But even if I did, I could flat-footedly disagree regardless.

I don't feel as though I can explain this. It's something you have to understand. But I'll post this link and hope you can put at least some of the pieces together, https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MoralityTropes

3. It's okay to harass someone because shipping something that problematic is just wrong.

The point is, no one in fiction is sentinent, except for in our minds. Morality is much more flexible.

It throws me that animals are sentinent, yet we'll know this and eat them regardless. We're hard-pressed to value animals above people, let alone put them on remotely similar levels.

But somehow their is a group of people out there who are condone harassing or threatening people because a completely non-sentinent being is being hurt from their prespective. Really??

Humans go by a general consensus. That we won't put animals above humans. Yet, we're willing to put invisible, fictional entities above humans? This sounds eerily similar to radical cult/religous groups. The only difference is that antis (hopefully) know for sure that a fictional characters aren't real. Most religious people at least have an excuse, even if it's a terrible one.

4. Aging up Characters is wrong

The most unbelieveable argument, but I'll bite. It's not. It's not pedophilia. By Google definitions, pedophilia is a sexual attraction toward children. A pedophile is someone who is sexually attracted to children.

This is not pedophilia. Characters have been aged up in media ever since media has existed. You are not sexualizing a child by aging them up, even if said drawing is suggestive.

When you incorrectly use this term, you make it harder for real victims to be believed, you trivialize the struggles that actual victims have/are going through. If it's weird and suspicious to you, then fine.

5. All proshippers are pedophiles/condone pedophilia.

Firstly, please stop saying this as a lot of proshippers are minors. You are further spewing misinfo on what a pedophile is toward someone who is still developing and may meet an actual pedophile but aren't able to properly identify them because some stranger in line kept insisting an artist who aged up a character is one. Minors are very easily influeneced by the internet. Being harassed does more damage than shipping something they will likely grow out of.

And those who are not minors usually are survivors of CSA/SA and cope with their trauma through drawing or writing certain content. They get to rewrite or redraw what happened to them and give themselves a better ending.

You don't have the right to tell them how to cope. Fiction is supposed to be a safe space, thus, why it is a medium recommended by therapists and has been for centuries. This shit has literally been researched.

Secondly, adult proshippers usually have something along the lines of 'Minors DNI' on their pages. I notice that even antis who post explicit/NSFW content don't, though. Which is ironic.

And the 'not all victims cope this way so they don't have to cope this way' argument is valid.

6. Well, I wouldn't attack them if they weren't public with it.

That's no excuse. You have entirely too much time on your hands, first off. Be hateful towards a person who actually deserves that hate.

Secondly, as long as they have proper warnings on their page, it's their shit. You can't tell them what to do with it.

Lastly, I've never met a proshipper that forced an anti to interact with them or their content. I've never met a proshipper who can somehow resist being blocked by the complete stranger who happened to stumble across their page.

Generally speaking, I don't believe in the 'don't like, don't interact' thing. Not with video games. Or TV. Or social media. You have the right. But when it's another human being, I highly doubt that's something that can't be accomplished.

This also sounds weirdly familiar to the, "Well, if gay people weren't throwing it in my face, I wouldn't have anything to say about them!" Antis are oddly authoritarian.

In Conclusion:

There's no excuse to harass anyone over fiction. And if someone has a very difficult time seperating fiction from reality, I highly recommend therapy in all brutal honesty.

Nothing will ever make telling a suicidal person to kill or hurt themselves okay.

Nothing will ever make falsely telling a survivor that they are their abuser or like their abuser okay.

If I tell Charlie Brown to kill himself right now it won't matter.

If I tell a real person to kill themselves, my words can and just might have real, lasting, effects.

If I tell Percy Jackson to kill himself he'll be okay and we know this without question.

If I tell a real person to kill themselves because they told me they ship Percy with Hera or whoever the fuck, theirs no way of knowing. And if you're fine with that - if you even so much as defend that - then maybe you should engage in something less hateful.

How about worshipping a flying spaghetti monster (since you may as well be)?

[kachinnate]

,,,,okay i know i just said i wasn’t going to talk about the deh movie but actually yeah imma talk about it for just a sec bc y’all actually make me legitimately distressed sajkfndsmjkgds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLQ_A0H1otc i dont have the braincells to do a shot by shot analysis right now but here’s what we’re lookin at

under a readmore because ghhhhhhh

firstly, let me lead with this: yes, from what we know, there’s a lot of things wrong with this movie. 

the worst, in my humble opinion, being the bts treatment of the (very few) actors of color, and the lack altogether of any production team members of color. that’s something that should be acknowledged, talked about, and fucking dug into especially at the current fucking period of time we’re living in. it’s unsurprising, but disgusting nonetheless, and it set this movie up for failure from the very beginning. i’m a white person so by no means so i feel inclined or like i have any authority in saying what one should feel wrt all of that, however i will say if there’s to be a boycott in not watching this movie, that should 100% be the reason why. it’s fully poc’s choice whether or not to forgive the production team or give this movie a chance for the irredeemable shit it did in regards to handling the movie’s production. the movie imo definitely doesn’t deserve their forgiveness, but again, that is not for me to say. 

there’s some little things too that i can’t fully think of off the top of my head - like, the whole making larry connor’s stepdad thing fucking irks me, for example, but, like...... listen.

if you know me like at all, you know my favorite word is nuance.

so, i’m going to say it outright: the way you people are approaching this three minute trailer shows literally.... none?? no nuance ??? is it no-nuance november over here or ???? like i’m begging you i’m BEGGING YOU to put aside your pre-determined prejudices against this movie and like stop pretending to be a renowned film critic for ten seconds because it’s really not as outright fucking abysmal as you are saying!! and also it’s possible to have opinions that aren’t completely fucking polarized to one side because guess what, the deh movie? a piece of media! what is the shit y’all are constantly preaching about having the ability to consume media critically ? because you’re trying to cancel a fucking trailer based on the contents of the trailer alone !!!!! hello !!!!!!!!

media is bound to be problematic. if y’all were as quick to judge any movie as you did this one, guess what you wouldn’t be watching any movies like ever <3 

anyway lets get into the parts that are probably going to get me cancelled lmao 

ben platt - listen. LISTEN. listen i know he’s too old to be reprising evan we ALL know he’s too old to be reprising evan i’ve heard this same argument since the announcement was made we get it we all know. haha he’s a grandpa yes bestie ur so right ur so funny wow. i do agree that we should’ve maybe had a not-ben-platt evan moment but here’s some things to keep in mind: the arguments of “oooh ABF is right there !!!!!!” 1. who’s to say he was available? 2. the environment of a movie is so, SO much different than that of a musical -- as much as you wanna pretend you know everything from just a trailer, there’s no way of knowing what scenes were added that might’ve made the movie like.. idk possibly more intense story-wise not even COUNTING the fact that just inherently a movie set is different than a musical one? like yes ben platt might be just being used as a device but that’s probably not the sole and only reason. Also, if i see One (1) more comment about his FUCKING HAIR 😃 first of all it’s not that deep like... if you’re so distracted by an actor having their hair different that’s on you, but going as far as to call it bad or distracting or being like Vehemently a way about it? y’all i know it’s most likely not your intention but that is literally just ben platt’s natural fuckin ETHNICALLY JEWISH hair sajknfgkjds!!!! i’m not the first to make this point, but like dsjnfkjdsg!??! y’all are being so mean about it and for WHAT? again, maybe not intentional, but it reads as like high key Very antisemetic and you should.... maybe not 😳 be that way

connor. the thing about a trailer is that they don’t show you all the scenes because they want you to come see the movie. right? can we agree on that? all the connor scenes in the trailer had SEVERAL hard cuts, omitting a lot of the scene -- like the computer lab scene! we see the beginning of it, there’s a VERY obvious hard cut, and then he’s running out! in my opinion my first watch through of this trailer i had a very like “:// hmm all these actors feel a lil like dry”, but man oh man the comments ive seen about connor. holy shit guys. this boy gets 7 minutes of stage time in the actual musical, and the whole thing is we DON’T KNOW VERY MUCH ABOUT HIM. not to burst your bubble, and i by no means hate connor, i love me some good connor lives fics and stuff, but everything we write with connor being alive? that is !! speculation on our part !!!! those are headcanons and us using the little context we have!! connor doesn’t have any significant development IN THE SOURCE MATERIAL that is being adapted into a movie !!! you 1. can’t fully judge a character with already limited screentime in a 3 minute trailer, 2. can’t really call what connor has canonically in the musical as in depth character development !! what is his arc then !!!! he pushes evan, goes to the computer lab, has an outcast loner kid moment, gets upset, takes the letter, DIES. sorry stans, that’s just how it is !! and, AND, everything in between, all the idiosyncracies, that depends on the actor playing connor! speaking of, you know who the actor is playing connor in the movie? that’s right, colton ryan! so, i don’t know, maybe... have some trust in the process, in an actor who ALREADY has played connor on broadway???? and also trust that you will get more connor content then u are seeing from a 3 minute trailer!! dhgnijsdg and some of the comments on like his appearance specifically? like are you really made that he doesn’t have long hair?? they kept his nails and his rings but nahhh the hair was apparently a MUST HAVE (even though like.. not all connor actors on broadway always had/have long hair but w/e).. REGARDLESS. tldr on THAT , the movie would have to do a pretty shitty job if they want to take something from someone who doesn’t have much to begin with and i think y’all are being extremely harsh on this point 

jared. honestly i’m a bit worried too about the like... name change, because it does have the potential to be taking out some representation, but... they did change the name to fit the actor’s ethnicity? it’s a really [hmm] topic because, again, from a trailer and from what we have been told we don’t KNOW a lot of the context, but i think it’s important to remember that uh.. jewish people aren’t just? always white ?? there’s a possibility they changed the last name to fit with the [ethnicity] while keeping him jewish?? ofc there’s the possibility that they Didn’t and ... again hm that’s its own thing altogether but just reiterates the point that you can’t knock a whole movie just based on the trailer. you can’t talk about things you know nothing about. 

alana. same thing as before, you can’t.... completely bash a character based on a 3 minute trailer. there was discussion about how she seemed ‘shy’ when talking to evan, which like.. maybe she is but also that scene was them talking in a library like if u actually take notice of what’s happening in the scene jdskngsd though i do share the general consensus with many others that she won’t get a lot of screen-time but that’s neither here nor there 😔 moving on

scenes and the setting. one of the things i was most like.. tentative about in regards to a switch from a musical to a movie was how they were like... going to do certain scenes? naturally, a lot has to be different when we’re going from a minimal stage set to an entire movie with like.. settings. there are going to be new scenes because a movie lends to have like, physical places that aren’t just [evan’s bedroom] and [murphy kitchen] and [implied school]. so new scenes, new conversations, slightly different pacing.. this is all to be expected right like are y’all geneuinely surprised here or ........

there’s a lot we aren’t seeing yet because this is a TRAILER. again i already mentioned this re: connor but like... again, y’all are making some Claims that just... fucking outlandish. there are so many moments in the trailer that are very obvious Hard Cuts. you don’t have all the information yet. you are angry at a tiny fragment of something that is confusing you because you don’t have all the context. is there a chance that some of this shit is just genuinely Bad? yeah but you really cannot 100000% say it with your chest and gauge it without seeing the movie and understanding what that scene is in context. lowkey uhhh saw some jokes about the zoe scene in the car and :’))) ? jesus? christ????

concluding thoughts because my brain hurts but like. you don’t have to like the movie. you don’t have to WATCH the movie. like all media if you choose to consume the movie you should do so with some CRITICAL THOUGHT. but, just like the novel (and i do not want to have any discussions about that i don’t care if you think it’s good Or bad that’s not what this is about) you guys are going in this WANTING to believe it’s bad and completely polarizing your thoughts on what this is going to be. yeah, maybe there shouldn’t be a movie. i genuinely think we could’ve gone without. but it’s just a piece of media, it’s not a progression like all your (musical is good, novel is bad, MOVIE IS WORSE OH NO) posts are suggesting. they are all just. different pieces of media stemming from a source. at the end of the day it’s just a fucking movie. if you already hate it so much, guess what? you don’t have to watch it! you don’t have to put so much needless fucking hate into a 3 MINUTE TRAILER. you can stop being performative and dissing it for its poor treatment of POC while then going on to make fun of ben platt’s hair and just targeting a different group like! please !!!

i’m not trying to be a fuckin’ advocate for this movie because there’s so much opportunity for it to suck, i do Not have high hopes for it, and i’m not even really sure i want to watch it (i bought the novel when it came out and have yet to read it, and i’m sure the movie will like.. elicit very similar vibes from me lsdngjkdsg like im just not uhhh feeling it) but y’know what? watching the trailer did not bring forth the fucking onslaught of hatred in me that apparently has fuckin posessed all of y’all and like djnsgjksdg plagued my dashboard for this whole evening. don’t come into my inbox trying to like.. argue with me about this (preemptively im turning off anon because i like i Can’t lmao) this is just like... a rant i needed to get out of me real quick. 

SO. tldr for now: have critical thought about shit you consume, there’s no ethical consumption under [the film industry], you can’t judge a movie entirely on its trailer, and y’all need to calm the fuck down 

[witchcraftingboop]

Re: Jbird & RainS. (Briar) Discourse

Previously, I have spoken with the person who made very serious allegations against JBird, calling him a racist, that were then used by others to spread slander against him. They have since apologized and admitted that JBird isn't a racist, and I genuinely think there was a stark miscommunication that went on to prompt such a claim. I don't want to name them or involve them here, since I do believe they've already reflected enough on the situation at hand, and is still deeply considering the multi-faceted hornet's nest of problems they've stumbled upon.

However, in light of the blatant dismissal and refusal to submit actual proof against the two, I feel as if I should share the information I offered this person before.

If you are basing your arguments against Jbird and Briar off of the previous, separate Discord group discussions of Trio & co. - screenshots of which have been, and continue to be spread years later, by Prim - then I especially implore you to be open to what I have to say. As a third party to this continually and rapidly spiralling debacle, I feel like there's not much I can say or do to assist my friends in being heard, but I feel as if I ought to try. Prim's following is large and actively prepared to follow her "do not interact even to ask questions" policy, so I worry it may be too late already. But I am not without hope or faith.

Tumblr is, unfortunately, a place where hate spreads rapidly, and while I do love the broad community it fosters, I am also aware that, even with the best of folks, it is hard to see the side of someone you've already decided is guilty and not worth approaching for an explanation.

First and foremost, I believe in innocence until proven guilty.

Now then! Onto my offered commentary/input! (Sorry to prattle on so much.)

To start, thedesertgod, also known as Trio, did go through and look for her personal information, which is messed up. But that person has already apologized, if I'm remembering correctly, and left Tumblr. And the other main user who helped spread information about Prim being a race faker also admitted wrong and left. The others in the chat, particularly Mystic and Ronan appear to just be making jokes and stating factual informative summaries, respectively. E-muete also said "ok no" after the Dolezal comment, which is a common "no that's too far a comparison/joke/statement" substitute among their forums and chats and often means they don't actually agree with what they themselves said. Ruby also politely reminds Trio that it's impossible to tell someone's race off of their appearance alone. So what I see here is definitely problematic, but entirely on Trio's part. I'm not saying it's not screwed up to find pictures of someone's parents and debate their race, but the persons who did those things have already left the Tumblrsphere.

Unfortunately, the people you've pointed out don't have a good history with Prim even before the whole "Trio nitpicking her race" thing. Prim used to follow more than a few of them and use their posts to fuel her platform, oftentimes creating uninformed mish-mosh articles with a voice of authority that simply wasn't warranted. As I'm sure you're aware, it's hard enough dealing with people stealing your content word for word, but to attempt to steal your knowledge? Your initiations and rites of passage? And use them to sell yourself as a master of a breadth of practices? The tradcrafters of that particular circle decided to band together and block her from interacting with them directly for that very reason. And because of that, Prim started telling her followers that they are all racist and elitist and ableist and gatekeepers. These terms over the years have become almost like triggers in that once they're said, everyone seems to put on a blindfold and fall into a frenzied rage. And to be fair, Prim is far too quick, in my opinion, to bring up racism as the reason others disagree with her. Most times, I've noticed at least, that if she calls someone racist or says they're unsupportive of POC, she nearly immediately brings up BLM activism in her posts or reblogs. I'm not saying I necessarily support calling all of her activistic inclinations performative, but where the tradcradt group she calls racist is more than willing to talk of and show proof of their contribution, Prim never has and avoids it if asked. I can see both sides, really. But the fact remains that calling someone performative in their actions, does not a racist make. Neither, in my opinion, does interacting with people who are assumed (without real and concrete proof) to be racist.

I can appreciate where you're coming from; honestly, I can. People have grown accustomed to hearing the prefix trad- and preparing for the worst. Racism is a systematic and prevailing problem in the society all around us, so it makes sense to be on the lookout for it. You want to protect yourself and your community. I can understand your sentiments perfectly. But I cannot support "guilty by association" viewpoints. As a WOC who grew up in some rough areas, I have seen boys killed under that very same reasoning. Jbird is a good friend of mine, and I have never questioned his morals or ethics. I have seen no sign of my being looked down upon for the color of my skin, nor anyone else who runs in that very same circle.

What I see is what I see in a lot of faces on this hellsite: hurt. Before Trio and after Trio left, the tradcraft community has been slandered and ostracized. They have shut themselves off to outsiders for the very thing you've done to Jbird just yesterday. They hold their secrets closer than most other communities now because persecution is seemingly forever at their door. On Prim's end too, there has been struggle and pain and needless arguing and hurt. If those you approach seem prickly, it is often because the world has roughened their edges, not because they personally are against you.

I asked for a couple examples from the group and one person (I'll keep them anonymous because I didn't confirm they'd like their name here) said: she has talked about saint magic (trio), hadean pamphlet (trio), hubris (Ruby), fairies, trad craft shit (Mahigan among others), etc etc

From what I personally have seen, her most recent was the Witch Fire podcast. A few tradcraft blogs had a debate/discussion about Witch Fire and its traditional eurocentric foundations in witchcraft not that long ago, and then Prim decided to put out a podcast that was so uninformed, I'm still worried about how younger or newer witches might be hurt by it.

Unfortunately the tradcraft community is vulnerable to that kind of thing [being called names or falsely accused] and an easy target. That's why being called those kind of harsh words - like gatekeeping, elitist, racist, and ableist - are met with so much anger from them. I take it very seriously because I've seen the kind of whiplash it has, especially on such a closed off group.

[A Reply.] Yeah no, Prim "apologizes" by talking about how she's been previously given a hard time with interjections of "but please don't go around spreading hate" and never directly apologizes to the tradcrafter in such posts. Unfortunately, her "apology" did more harm than good. I was hoping she'd just ignore it but . . . This tends to happen too 🤦‍♀️

I think that if both sides were able to approach it as openmindedly as you have, there would be a lot less drama and in-fighting on this app 😩 I really did enjoy talking with you though!

That just about covers everything I'd like to say on the matter.

I do not condone spreading hate, just as I don't condone misinformation or blind allegiance to what one person says. So if you can respectfully and openmindedly address your questions/comments/concerns, I don't see why you can't interact with Briar, Jbird, or myself. I understand it's easy to get caught up in the first perspective you're given, but it is my hope that Witchblr as a whole can be more open to hearing both sides of the story. Blindly blocking and cancelling certain bloggers is something I don't support nor encourage. I understand Prim must be tired of addressing all of the drama that churns around her, so I won't speak as to what her reasoning could be for suggesting such a solution. I'm simply stating what I hope for the community as a whole.

| | Note: The statements above were written early (I think, my sense of time is off) yesterday, and as of yet, I have still seen no concrete evidence that Briar or Jbird have ever made racist comments. On Briar's part, I have seen her observation that activism on a performative platform such as Tumblr can come off as performative, but she never once said she doesn't know or see why Prim would support and promote BLM activism. Something I think was misconstrued and lumped all together to sound as if she thought Prim were faking her contributions altogether. | |

[citrineghost]

Humans Are Historically Known for Being Terrible

Hi I’m here with an opinion today. Let’s see how many words it will take for me to adequately get it across on this very fine 15th of January

I personally believe canceling things from the past* is fruitless, pointless, and accomplishes about as much as censorship does

*We aren’t talking about shit like nazi Germany, let me elaborate further

So, as I occasionally do, I have seen a post on my dash today criticizing something historical that people are ‘problematically partaking in.’ That thing today was the wellerman sea shanty due to its ties with colonialism, slavery, and so forth. 

I’m not going to dive into this specific example, because I don’t know enough of the details and am not interested in going to find them out because I’m not planning to defend it or its history, so there’s no point. I learned what I needed to know from said callout post and it’s enough to work with.

To me, it is important that we remember that people, in general, have been historically pretty terrible.

There’s colonialism, there’s slavery (of all kinds, including chattel), there’s thievery, murder, genocide, sexism, the murdering of queers. There’s lying, manipulation, propaganda, and so many more things that I couldn’t possibly list them all. I’m not saying that everyone was equally shitty. I am aware that, especially in the most recent couple hundred years, white people, especially Western Europeans and Americans, have been pretty Shite.

Am I excusing them for their actions? Absolutely not. I think it is always important to bear in mind the way they played a part in cultures’ growth, death, and, ultimately, development from one year to the next.

The reason I’m pointing this out is because the result of people being historically shitty is that most, if not all, of our historical content, our history, is steeped in horse manure. 

There is not one thing you can enjoy from centuries - even decades - passed that is not here because of something inhumane, unjust, or otherwise terrible.

The only thing keeping us from canceling every other historical thing that we enjoy is our lack of awareness of how each thing ties into the whole mess.

So, we’ve learned that wellerman was sung by slavers and thieves and colonialists. What about that nice little folk song from uh, idk, Ireland or something? Let’s take this metaphorical song and ask the question, “who wrote it?” The truth is, for many folk songs, we just don’t know. There is a very very good chance that 90+ percent of nice, soft folk songs about lying in the grass or feeding chickens or baking bread for your spouse were written by racists, sexists, abusers, homophobes, and so forth.

Does that make it wrong to enjoy that song about lying in the grass and looking at the stars? I don’t think so. No one is profiting off of you listening to it, regardless of who wrote it. It’s hundreds of years old. Do you even know the name of who wrote it?

Remembering that times were different may not absolve something of its wrongdoing, but it does provide us context.

We have to allow ourselves to admit that most, if not all, historical things, came from or benefitted from atrocities or injustices that we would not stand for today. That’s just how human progression works. Frankly, if people 200 years from now don’t look at US, CURRENTLY, and think we’re terrible assholes, I am actually very concerned by that. 

The nature of humanity is to get better and better over time and to build a world and a society where we don’t feel the need to be controlled by greed or to consume unethically. The problem is, it takes time. It takes lots and lots of time. Would it take less time if certain people weren’t terrible, terrible people? Yes it would. But they are, and so it doesn’t.

The fact is, human progression and improvement will never reach its end because, as things improve, our perception of our past actions will change as well and we will begin to realize that what we were doing wasn’t acceptable and is no longer necessary nor excusable. 

Hate Jeff Bezos? Look around and see that 90% of people still buy from Amazon, because it provides the only affordable source of many products for people who don’t make enough money under capitalism to buy from a small business.

Hate Bill Gates? How many of us are willing to switch to Linux to quit using Microsoft? Speaking of Microsoft, they own Minecraft. Do we stop playing Minecraft?

Think Steve Jobs is a terrible person? Why are people still buying iphones, ipads, and macs? Why don’t we stop buying those so that he and current CEO, Tim Cook, quit making billions of dollars?

These are just a tiny amount of examples, using big names. We also must consider, if you have 100 books on your bookshelf, how many of the writers of those books are racists, homophobes, sexists, or abusers? I guarantee you it’s a non-zero answer. The thing is, an author who’s relatively nobody is not someone who gets canceled. No one knows anything about them but that they wrote a neat work of fiction and it’s a good book.

The question is, should we be expected to quit buying, consuming, and enjoying things made by problematic people?

In some cases, the answer should be yes. If someone is currently profiting massively from people consuming their media or products and people are ignoring their atrocities, that person could end u making millions or billions of dollars despite being terrible, which is something that undoubtedly affects all of us, economically.

In the other cases, the answer should be, do you want to? If you’re not comfortable with something, you should, of course, stop consuming it. If you can ignore the thing, you might not need to bother. And, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re excusing it.

If we look at all of humanity, even in the present day, mathematically speaking, 50% of people are more bigoted and terrible than the rest. There’s no other way for it to be. Less than 50% would be a mathematical fallacy. Does that mean we only consume content from the better 50%? Does that mean we rigorously research producers and creators and their personal lives only to decide it’s not worth the risk of ‘contributing’ because they have no trace online except for a private Facebook account? Is them having a Facebook account enough of a ‘sin’ that it’s not worth it to buy their book?

This brings us to the censorship point

If you know your history, you know that censorship is a nasty thing. When one person decides who or what is unethical to consume from, they sometimes seek to get rid of that thing so that no one has a choice - so that no one is Allowed to consume that thing.

This has led to book burning, the destroying of decades and centuries of research about sexuality and gender. It’s destroyed religious texts. It’s destroyed content created by women that painted any single man in a bad light. It’s destroyed progression.

“But I only want to get rid of the bad thing that everyone agrees is bad!”

It doesn’t matter. If you open the door to censorship for yourself, those who wish to use it for worse reasons will become just as justified, in their own eyes, to do the same. You’ll have Christians saying it’s okay to get rid of gay content because it’s objectively wrong according to the bible. You’ll have conservative parents burning books with complicated topics like abuse and assault because they don’t want their children to have access to anything controversial or complex like that.

You cannot open the door to censorship for one group without opening that door for everyone. And that is why we do not censor things.

The question then becomes, but what of the people consuming that media? Even if it’s not censored, consuming it still makes someone bad, right? 

Not necessarily. People consume problematic stuff all the time - things considered objectively bad. However, people don’t always consume said media because they support it being normalized in the real world. For example, fanfiction or books with rape in them may be something a victim reads to cope with their own past or present. A book with abuse depicted may actually make a young teen aware that what they’re going through is abuse. Content largely seen as ‘problematic’ can often play a part in solving the problem it portrays.

Then there’s historical, problematic media. Now, this is an area where I feel things have actually been OVER complicated.

Because everything historical has some tie to injustice, there is no ethical way to consume it. 

There is no ethical consumption under passed time.

So, how do we judge whether something should or shouldn’t be consumed? It is my opinion that something historical should stop being consumed and become shunned when its meaning is well-known enough and its message is still pervasive enough that it is actively causing problems.

For example, we generally try not to consume content when it is made by someone who is a known nazi. This is because nazis are still a problem in our society, presently. We have antisemitism all over the place. Therefore, we cannot let the message become that it is okay to be a nazi by way of us treating nazis like normal people and allowing them to succeed in society without consequence.

However, there are certain problems that are no longer particularly prevalent or which are agreed to be terrible on a large enough scale that consuming the content does not necessarily imply you believe it is okay. For example, if you look at literally any media from the 1800s or which is placed in the 1800s, you will see a lot of casual sexism and gender roles. Should we despise that time period because sexism was readily available at every turn? Should we refuse to enjoy 19th century fashion or culture because it had problems? I think not. I think it would be pointless to refuse to consume, read about, or otherwise engage with the 19th century. It wouldn’t change the past and it isn’t going to somehow undo the progress we’ve made on women’s rights. 

As a matter of fact, if someone merely suggested that perhaps the people of the 19th century were right for forcing women to wear long dresses and darn socks all day, they would be laughed into oblivion and called a shitty, sexist incel (which would be correct).

Does enjoying media from or placed in the 19th century mean you support sexism? I certainly hope not, since I enjoy it very much and know a lot of progressive people, women especially, who do enjoy that kind of thing. It is common sense enough, at this point in time, that people don’t generally believe that the sexism of the 1800s was acceptable. I am not going to see someone watching a period drama and assume they desire for our present-day social laws to be like what’s portrayed. That would be a ridiculous assumption. However, I could not assume the same about someone I saw watching openly antisemitic content. I would quickly wonder if they’re an antisemite/nazi/white supremacist.

So, what about that one thing I heard had a sordid past?

Listen, if we’re being honest here, most things from history have a sordid past. Sea shanties? You bet. But then when we talk of sea shanties being steeped in colonialism, we have to look at the bigger picture. What about pirates? Pirates were, by and large, a huge contributor to slavery, theft, colonialism, and murder. Does that mean enjoying media with pirates is glorifying or contributing to slavery, theft, colonialism, and murder?

(I’m about to talk a lot about pirates but this can be applied to anything that was historically bad but is no longer prevalent)

Pirates of the Caribbean is only a movie, but pirates did once exist and they did kill people. They did raid ships of merchants and tradesmen and they killed them and stole their goods. They took many good men from their families and even killed working children aboard the ships. Does that make enjoying pirates in media a contributor to these things? No. It doesn’t. We are looking at a dramatised, cleaned up version of the original piracy. I think most people are aware that pirates, in the real world, are bad and harmful and should not be supported. That doesn’t make pirate media any less fun in theory, and under our own terms.

Then we arrive at our perception - because most of this does come down to perception. When you watch pirate media, should you enjoy that, are you able to divorce yourself from their actual history enough to enjoy the media? If you can, you might enjoy it a lot. If you can’t watch a movie about pirates without thinking the entire time about how terrible they were and how much damage they did, then pirate media just isn’t right for you. But, it doesn’t mean you should attempt to take it away from others. Your opinion and perception of pirate media is not the global perception.

I have to ask, do you think others view it the same way you do?

When you read that question, you may be wondering what exactly I mean. What I’m asking is, do you believe others view that media with the same “clarity” that you do? Do you believe they understand the atrocity of real pirates and Feel that the entire time they watch the media and still enjoy it anyway?

Perhaps that’s why your response to someone enjoying something you feel guilty partaking in is, “these people all must not care about the real-world damage pirates did. The fact that they can watch this (despite sitting here and feeling the same things I do) makes me sick.”

However, if that is the case, you must remember that for a lot of people, the awareness of real world consequence is suspended during dramatised depictions of it. It doesn’t mean they have forgotten about the real-world consequences of piracy or that they don’t know it at all. It just means they are choosing not to think about it in that light while consuming media.

There is also the assumption that people must not know about something when partaking in it. You may think, “How can they enjoy this media? They wouldn’t be able to stomach it if they realized what really happened with pirates.”

In many instances, you would be correct. A lot of people are ignorant to what pirates have done in the real world. If you told every ignorant person the truth, maybe 5% of them would then become turned off by pirate media, and the other 95% would keep the truth in mind and then divorce themselves from it to continue enjoying said media.

There are realities that it is safe to divorce yourself from, and there are those that are not.

Is allowing yourself to enjoy dramatizations of pirates making you ignorant to present day conditions? Not largely. There are still pirates today, but not nearly enough for the average Joe to need to take them seriously. Those who need to know about them and do something to stop them are aware.

However, it is not safe to divorce yourself from, for instance, the holocaust. Divorcing yourself from the holocaust and seeing it as merely a dramatic setting with dramatic events and not a present-day real-world problem is exactly the kind of thing that leads to young teens being sucked in by white supremacy and naziism as well as what leads to many average conservatives believing the rise in white supremacy isn’t actually real or is not a big deal. They have distanced themselves so far from the real-world atrocity of the holocaust that they have forgotten it was real and that real people, like them, were contributors. They don’t want to believe that everyday people had any power in it and that it was tiny acts of willful ignorance that made concentration camps so successful. 

All in all, there is a different answer for everything we consume.

Want to know if something you’re consuming is okay to consume? Ask yourself: is this produced by someone who is contributing to present-day conditions? If the answer is yes, quit consuming it. If the answer is no, ask yourself, does this media make me uncomfortable because I’m aware of its roots? If the answer is yes, stop consuming it. If the answer is no, it’s probably fine. You are most likely not doing any damage, so long as you are aware of what is wrong with the content and are not using it as grounds to perpetuate harm. 

If, when thinking about something problematic in an old piece of media, you cringe? You’re on the right track. If you feel inclined to make excuses for it or justify the wrong in it, it’s time to step away and reevaluate why you feel the need to do so. If you’re doing so because you feel guilty for consuming it, you need to realize that it is actually more harmful to make excuses for the wrong in order to justify your consumption than it is to admit, “Yeah, this media is problematic and contains a lot of sexism, but I still enjoy it for its other qualities.” It is better to admit that you enjoy something problematic than to spread the message that what is happening in it is okay.

Some of you may be thinking, “Or, just stop consuming problematic media.”

I think in many cases, especially recent media, where your consumption has an effect on production, this is true. However, for media that is no longer being produced, I will remind you that most things have something wrong with them - yes, even pretty recent stuff.

Supernatural kills off women constantly, queerbaited the fuck out of its viewers, and sent a huge character to fucking mega hell for confessing his love.

Scrubs has no end to its sexism, transphobic and homophobic slur usage, and other problematic content.

V for Vendetta glorifies and shines a heroic light on a character who kidnaps and tortures a woman for what appeared to have been weeks or months so that she would be forced to understand his trauma and “no longer be afraid.”

Star Wars has incest, the producers/directors abused Carrie Fisher and sexualized her as a young teen, and probably a lot more that I’m not aware of because I haven’t seen the movies nor read the books.

I don’t even need to start on shows like Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, Community, That 70s Show, and so many more. Almost every popular piece of media has something worth canceling in it. There is no point trying to curate your media consumption to only unproblematic content, because it simply can’t be done.

Curate where it makes a difference. Sigh heavily the rest of the time. Make yourself aware what and how things are problematic. Put critical thought into how your consumption is capable of supporting or perpetuating a problem and how it is not. Make informed decisions.

Do not feel guilty if you are unable to flawlessly live up to the standards of purity culture. None of us can - not really.

[mustloveshera]

(1/3) Expecting this not to happen with she-ra was naive on my part, because it literally always happens. It's such a predictable cycle and it's why I hate fandom culture so much.  It seems like people only have room in their brains for one Good Thing at a time. She-ra was a huge deal for a while, and then the owl house came out, and well, the owl house is a Good Thing so it's time for everyone to move away from she-ra and start stanning the owl house instead.

(2/3) So now that She-ra isn't the Good Thing anymore, well surely it must be problematic. It's seriously like clockwork. The new thing comes and all of a sudden the past champion of wokeness was actually racist, ableist and homophobic all along. Every tiny detail that can be taken out of context to imply bigotry is eagerly pounced on.

(3/3) I recognize that I probably sound like a lunatic anti-sjw complaining about why we can't enjoy anything anymore, but I promise that's not the case. What I'm saying is that I've been involved in fandom culture for a long time and by now I've seen this pattern so many times that it's become difficult to take any discourse seriously anymore. I think fandom people are just addicted to the feeling of righteous anger so they create it at every opportunity. Sorry for this being so long.

--

while i think 3/4 of the complaints in the original tweet are absolute BS, like i’ve said, i can’t speak about the “sow” issue except provide context as i’ve done. i’ve mentioned before that i was particularly skeptical of mara’s appearance in certain harsh lighting, which the staff themselves acknowledged was a screw-up. there’s also the fact that all 9 people on that livestream were at least white-passing, which isn’t a good look when you’re making a thoughtless joke. among other issues. i acknowledge all of that and am not trying to speak over any fans of color. i am focusing on correcting the blatant misinformation in every part of the offending tweet, the other 3 issues which i can speak about, and fandom culture in general.

i have seen the behavior you’re describing. i’ve even see people say, “spop is canceled, but at least we have toh!” before they got ANY context beyond that horrible bullet-point summary tweet that was literally inaccurate even regardless of opinions/interpretations. they were 110% ready to throw away spop on the word of one summary tweet completely devoid of context or direct quotes or anything resembling accuracy. like, do these people read trashy pop culture headlines and believe them? because it seems like they would and would never even read the full article let alone seek further context before making a judgment call. i’ve also seen a ton of people who got into toh mocking noelle for only showing explicit wlw rep towards the end of the last season, as if she as a member of that marginalized group didn’t fight really hard and risk her career to even get that much. it’s because of people like noelle and rebecca that dana is able to include such amazing explicit rep now. like, these are all good things!

it’s as if people think they can’t just lose interest/move on. they need to have “always thought there was something off about [x]”, or “never trusted [y]” or realize their original interest was actually Peak Problematic. like...it’s okay to just...find a new interest, and the universe will not implode if two progressive shows exist at the same time. i love toh and i still love spop. it’s very possible, i promise!

the thing is, before this, actual and perceived bigotry were both so readily dismissed/excused/celebrated. i wouldn’t want that culture either. there’s no winning here. but we let perfect become the enemy of good, and so we divide ourselves over issues that don’t even exist. again, i am not talking about the “sow” issue here for those who have actually listened to the full context and made their own judgment call--i’m talking about the misinfo that was so blindly embraced.

not surprisingly, tumblr is being way more reasonable about this than twitter. as if i needed another reason to avoid twitter forever lol. that place is toxic as all fuck and i say that as someone who’s been on tumblr for almost 10 years.

[kuriquinn]

Dear Mr. Kuri, thank you so much for your recent post concerning the young artist who was effectively censored from sharing his/her/their art on a particular subject (just... so sad). I was hoping to get your thoughts on how adults might navigate interactions with minors in this space. Specifically, extending our support for their work w/out necessarily... engaging with them. I know this sounds crazy stupid but before tumblr I wasn't really active on any social media and I had no idea (cont'd)

there were so many users under the age of 16 on this site. I've even come to learn that some identified users I had interacted with early on were as young as 13, and as someone in my 30's - tbh that scared the shit out of me. I totally agree that someone that young and impressionable would be crushed by the kind of criticism that poor artist faced, and would likely never create or share again... to their detriment. The thing is though, I feel really hesitant following any creator (cont'd)

that isn't 18 or older... What are your thoughts on following/reblogging/interacting with minors in fandom? I fully agree that they need support, especially from older users who don't care what some stranger on the internet has to say... but I just feel... like I don't know how to go about that the right way. I really REALLY don't want minors on my blog at all... sorry to bother you with this, just wondering how you'd suggest handling this. I didn't comment on the post bc I didn't (cont'd)

want to risk that young artist reading my inquiry and feeling even more alienated. As always, thank you for your time and insight. - Birk

I may go a bit off-topic here, but let me give this a try:

I think in, In the end, it all comes down to communication and mutual respect.

Adults have this pervading mentality that until a child hits 18, they need to be infantilized and sheltered, but once they pass that magical number, then it’s a free for all. So, for eighteen years, it’s all about sticking a Potemkin village in front of any idea, person or situation that a child might find uncomfortable (read: they don’t like the feelings it gives them; very different from actual harmful ideas/persons/situations). Then, these sheltered almost-adults enter public spaces and expect society to keep doing that…when it turns out that’s not how it works, they become toxic.

This is how poisonous movements like purity-culture develop online, or new fans who demonize older fans and adults as being perverts for enjoying the very same pastimes they have.

For those of us interacting with these people, the automatic reaction is to “cancel” that person, thereby alienating and isolating them even more in their bad behavior. Instead of taking the time to talk with and try to show them through actions that the world isn’t limited to what they know.

As adults in fandom, we know that a large majority of the fandom is younger, because we were them once. We were that 12-year-old discovering fanfiction existed or sharing drawings we made of our original Harry Potter characters or quoting our favorite movies and televisions ad infinite. We got shit for it in real life, so we had to create spaces of our own online.

We, in effect, built fandom so that it would be more welcoming for the generations that came after us. And while a lot of us stick to that unwritten knowledge, as the years pass, a lot more become gatekeepers. They set a standard of what a fan must know or do to be considered a “real” fan, and they’re mean about how they do that.

Is it any wonder that new fans coming in experience this behavior and then jump on the “adults in fandom is creepy” bandwagon?

These new fans coming in, especially tweens and teens, they still live in this false reality where they only get to enjoy themselves and be kids for a limited amount of time, and once they Become Adult they have to give it all up—and can’t figure out why all those old creeps online are still a part of such “childish” things.

That fault lies squarely on our society, which pushes kids from a young age to be thinking of what they want to do when they grow up so they can get out there and start producing, producing, producing for the state and becoming a “useful” member of society.

We as fandom veterans, need to do our best to teach them differently, and that comes right back to my point: communication and mutual respect.

Older fans need to respect newcomers, as much as the new baby fans need to learn to respect their fandom elders. There is no maximum age for fandom; there’s no minimum age, either, although the younger the fan, the more their parents should be keeping an eye out for the truly damaging stuff and teaching their kids how to avoid that stuff on their own.

Now, obviously, people don’t always announce online how old they are (though it does happen more frequently now than when I started writing), but regardless, there should be a certain etiquette to it.

When you interact with someone online, you don’t know if they are 15 or 50. And the way you interact with them shouldn’t change based on knowing their age. We should maintain the same level of respect for the new fans as the older fans.

So, as to how adults might navigate interactions with minors (especially when you know they’re minors)?

Treat them as any other intelligent human being: with respect.

Because how else are they going to learn?

My mom always used to say to us, “I’m not raising children, I’m raising adults,” which basically meant she was teaching us how to be adults. Kids don’t pop out of the womb magically knowing how to interact with the world, they take their cues from the adults that are already there.

Fandom babies learn how to be active participants in fandom from the people who are already there. And they’re more likely to listen to and look up to someone that treats them as a mature and capable being, than someone who dismisses them as too young or too green, or dismisses their knowledge and experience because they haven’t earned their metaphorical stripes.

Remember, a lot of these kids are coming to fandom because they need an outlet. In this age of helicopter parents, this is the only place where they get to be treated as an individual adult-in-the-making instead of the overly protected child or student that must be shielded from the world. A lot of them are trying to figure out how to deal with the horrors that happen to them or around them every day. That 16-year-old girl writing a rape/non-con fic under a pseudonym? She could be exorcising her own demons through the only way she has because no one in her life is listening to her. That 14-year-old writing about homelessness might know more about it than someone twice his age.

Expertise and experience knows no age, and as adults, we need to not fall into the trap of thinking it does. There are some kids out there that have seen and endured more than I can even imagine.

In recent years, there’s been this trend of treating kids like sexless beings until we, the adults, deem them capable of having a sense of sexuality. When the reality is, once kids start puberty, they’re developing that sexuality, and are trying to figure out what it means to them and how to navigate it, and the world. It doesn’t matter if adults are uncomfortable with it, this is what our human biology has decided for us.

And chances are, as much as adults try to curate the world and keep kids from seeing the darker, less safe stuff? They’re already doing it. I saw this when I was teaching, the kids are already accessing and interacting with stuff like sex, drugs, relationships… Whenever a faceless censor tries to block that sort of thing, they find a way around it. Humans are funny like that—we want the things that are kept away from us, whether harmful or not.

It’s our responsibility to help them think critically about what they’re seeing, and teach them to express themselves about it in a respectful manner.

So by all means: follow that amazing artist even if they are only 15. Their age doesn’t negate the fact that they have talent that needs to be nurtured and encouraged. Reblog the images and the fics that strike you, even if you find out the person writing it isn’t 18 yet. Send a shoutout via DM or review or comment to someone that you admire whether you know they’re age or not.

Unless you’re being actively creepy and offensive (and seriously, don’t do that, it’s gross whether the recipient is a minor or not), chances are these creators are desperate for some assurance that the medium they choose to express themselves in is having an effect on people—and that they have the power to make even adults sit up and listen.

So…TL;DR:

When interacting with younger fans, do so with respect. And if they say something problematic, don’t automatically cancel them and write them off as “obviously too young and immature to understand”. They understand more than you think and will seek out their interests whether adults think it’s appropriate or not. That’s how freedom works. But if we’re going to nip bad behavior like purity culture and agism in the bud, we need to start by treating minors in fandom as adults developing their worldview, not as infants to be sheltered.  

[mrslackles]

"TLDR: If you don’t know the emotional burden the POC behind the scenes are carrying then don’t use them as a defence just because you like the end product." holy shit. fuck yes. i apologize in advance if this gets long & rambling. it is super offensive to use the race/presumed race as a shield. i've seen stand use it with the writers' room, the actors, & themselves. so, one at a time. (1)

(2) The writers: like you said, maybe some just don’t have the emotional energy or desire to be the “race monitor” for every conversation (AND THEY SHOULDN’T HAVE TO BE!). Getting staffed in a room is hard enough and I can easily see the desire – because I’ve had it too in work & personal settings - to not get labeled as the troublemaker who is always bringing race into it. I mean, shit, we see it happening in the fandom and none of us are getting paid for this (although some seem like it).

Exactly! It’s so hard to even get in the door. Being the ‘race monitor’ is so utterly exhausting and it shouldn’t be an expected duty from POC. 

(3) I will say that I bet the Good Girls writing room is probably 85% better than most other rooms, which is faint praise if you’ve read any thing about the industry. I just can’t believe JB left Shondaland without learning anything. Quick tangent: I’m not a fan of Shonda Rhimes’ creative output. Watched a few episodes here & there; maybe even the entire first of GA. They are too DRAMATIC! for my tastes. But I’m a HUGE fan of SR and what she’s accomplished.

Same! I’ve only properly watched two of her shows: How to Get Away with Murder, when it was still good, and The Catch (which I’m still mad got cancelled!). But I’m astonished by what she’s accomplished, it’s super impressive. I’m also not sure how Jenna seemingly came away with very few lessons about intersectionality, though. (I think Laurel on HTGAWM probably got more about her culture included in the first episode than Rio has in nearly three seasons.)

(4) (although an interesting though experiment is would all that have happened if she hadn’t hooked up with Betsy Beers?) And one thing I remember reading from SR that stuck with me b/c it is a fact of life but not often articulated is that when she would read scripts the only times a character’s race was indicated was when the character wasn’t white. so, white is the default. the presumed. the normal. I love that she said that because that’s the kind of subtle racism that is so insidious.

I didn’t know about Betsy Beers! That is actually really interesting. 

And, yes. White is the default. That’s what I really loved about @septiembur‘s response as well – so little thought goes into making the Latinx characters real people, which really shows in the naming and the way they haven’t let Rio step into his identity. 

I also think she made a really good point that the friendship between the girls is something else to be investigated. I’ve always felt, but especially in 2x08 it was hard to ignore, that there isn’t much acknowledgement of how the world treats Ruby differently than her two best friends, and I can’t help wondering if that’s as a result of that default treatment – these characters get cast as POC, but not written as such. Because every POC knows that having white friends is a Whole Thing.  

(5) that’s the kind of racism that says “i can’t be racist, i have black friends.” ok. point 2 - the actors. as at @septiembur mentioned, Retta & Reno have both spoken about pushing back on things. they also mentioned that the “La Di Da Di” sequence came about because they were just doing it for fun around set and someone took a video and sent to JB and they wrote it in. Manny has been super vocal about the struggles of MOC in the industry and his own in particular.

I know. Every time people say “Manny must be fine with…” or “Manny hasn’t said anything against…” I’m so confused because he’s said so much more than I would ever expect someone in his position to say. Not directly about the show, but like you say, he’s been vocal about his struggles in the industry, and it’s very easy to see how that plays out on this show as well. Nobody can speak for him or know how he feels, but he’s been clear on certain issues and those issues crop up here too.

(6) he’s constantly saying he never knows how tough or charming to play the character and that means he’s not getting any guidance from what’s written. also in the Angie Martinez interview, he mentions director & writers telling him to play tougher (while making a growl noise), which is basically like in community when they try to tell Shirley to be sassier. it’s hella coded language and poc deal with it all the time. 

Oh, for SURE. I’m not Latinx, black or even American and I immediately knew what he meant.

(7) point 3 - the fans. woo boy, this is the stickiest one. I’ve seen stans say “I’m latinx and it didn’t bother me.” great. not all poc have the same reactions. also, we live in a white heteronormative patriarchy and that affects us all. it’s why so much of social justice is UNlearning. also, may I present stacey dash & ben carson. and the over 50% of white women who voted to uphold the grossest form of white heteronormative patriarchy in 2016, especially important as that was the catalyst for the show’s creation.  

(8) and maybe i’m being uncharitable, but some of those stans are the same ones that have zero problem calling other female fans misogynists. so, at best, they understand that having an identity of an oppressed class does not automatically make you immune to participating in that oppression. at worst, they throw that term around and then use their racial identity as armor. Damn, ok, hope some of that made sense. 

I also find certain stans to be the sticking point, tbh. It’s one thing to have a problematic show. It’s a different one altogether to have a fanbase that not only defends that show with its lives, but also attacks anyone who dares speak up against it.   

“some of those stans are the same ones that have zero problem calling other female fans misogynists. so, at best, they understand that having an identity of an oppressed class does not automatically make you immune to participating in that oppression. at worst, they throw that term around and then use their racial identity as armor.” 🔥🔥🔥

Dang, Anon, you did not come to PLAY!

[obsidianarchives]

Body Shaming in 'Harry Potter'

Re-reading the beginning of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, I’m surprised by how much I sympathize with the Dursleys. I don’t particularly like them in the general sense, but considering the scene where the Weasleys come to pick up Harry from their perspective, and Dudley’s perspective in particular, it becomes incredibly difficult to imagine a world in which they weren’t deeply skeptical and suspicious of magic. Magic, for the Dursleys, is scary and destructive, and for Dudley, in particular, has enacted much violence upon his body.

It is no secret that I have been a long-time fan of the Harry Potter series, as something that I have held near and dear to my heart for a long time, and at certain points in my life it has filled the religious and spiritual void that I felt within myself. And yet, as much as I often treat the series as a sacred text, there are a great many failings, and nowhere do I feel that is more clear than in the vicious attacks that are made against those who do not fit into the conventional molds of body image. The narration of the text uses the description of the body as a weapon, and a proxy for how we are meant to feel about a given character.

This is not uncommon in storytelling, and not unique to Harry Potter. The common narrative that society tells us is that pretty people are good and ugly people are bad, and society also tends to have pretty strict and nasty ways of describing who fits into either of those categories. The Harry Potter series is one in which there are very few characters where their race is explicitly stated, which is good because it means that there is room for interpretation. But one thing that is often explicitly stated in the text is when a character is being described negatively, they are given a value judgment based on their appearance and how they achieved that appearance. And nowhere is that more clear than with Dudley Dursley.

From the moment that we are introduced to Dudley, we are given the impression that he is a misbehaving child — the first word his says is either “shan’t” or “won’t” depending on your edition and he is described as “kicking and screaming for sweets.” He’s called a “beach ball” and a “pig in a wig.” Again and again the reader is hit over the head with the fact that Dudley — who is bad — is fat, while Harry — who is good — is skinny. Dudley is spoiled and petulant, and yes, he’s a bit of a horrible kid, but also he has really horrible parents. Dumbledore is not wrong in book six when he says that Vernon and Petunia have done a disservice to Dudley in treating him the way that they have. But Dudley is also mistreated by wizards. Hagrid gives Dudley a pig’s tail — was intending to turn him into a pig completely — and knows that he cannot reverse that. He never does reverse it, and by telling Harry not to tell anyone (protecting his own interests since Hagrid is not supposed to use magic) Hagrid dooms Dudley to needing to get the tail surgically removed by Muggle means, which was no doubt expensive, humiliating, and painful.

The ton-tongue toffee incident, which is what prompted me to ruminate on all this again, I found to be just so cruel. Because Dudley is on this incredibly forced and restrictive diet, being taunted by Harry — who is not following it at all — and is basically going cold turkey on all the foods he has normally had. His whole worldview has shifted when his version of normal (although it was anything but) changed. He’s not actually starving, but he probably feels like it, because it is such an abrupt shift in his eating habits. And here are the first sweets he has seen in probably months, and they cause this horribly, physically, and psychologically painful incident.

Then, only a year later Dudley has the experience with the dementor, a monster that almost sucked out his soul. This is often remarked upon as the turning point, where Dudley starts to evaluate his actions and change his ways. And yet this change is due to a real violence by magic, and as a whole magic has not been kind to Dudley. Nonetheless, at the start of the seventh book he was able to make an effort to reach out to Harry. The problem is that it’s framed as though Dudley only gets to make this transformation into a better person once he has matured enough to start getting into a “better” physical shape. Once he takes up boxing, and becomes athletic, his bulk is attributed to muscle rather than fat. Only then is he allowed to be something akin to a better person.

All over the Harry Potter canon we see unpleasant people described as being ugly. Pansy pug-faced Parkinson. Umbridge the toad. These are the people we are clearly supposed to dislike, and these traits are not assigned to antagonists as a way to set them apart. But the way it works with fatness is a bit different, because for all that Vernon and Dudley are called out for their weight, the characters we are supposed to like, even if they share a somewhat similar physical shape, don’t get this treatment. Neville, for example, is simply called a “round-faced boy.” But the actors who play Neville and Dudley looked so similar to each other when I watched Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone for the first time at age five that I got confused and thought Dudley had somehow ended up at Hogwarts. And Mrs. Weasley is described as being “plump.” Ludo Bagman, who is a character we are meant to both dislike and sympathize with, is described in middling terms.

“He had the look of a powerfully built man gone slightly to seed; the robes were stretched tightly across a large belly he surely had not had in the days when he had played Quidditch for England. His nose was squashed (probably broken by a stray Bludger, Harry thought), but his round blue eyes, short blond hair and rosy complexion made him look like a very overgrown schoolboy.” — Chapter Seven ‘Bagman and Crouch.’

These small moments in the way characters are introduced make the characters memorable, but they are also slightly insidious, and not at all kind when the narrator doesn’t want to be.

All told, fitting the conventional mold is not a universally bad thing, but the way this is portrayed is problematic because the way in which certain characters but not others are shamed for their weight/appearance seems to promote the idea that being treated with respect regarding one's body is a privilege that can be revoked in response to bad behavior, rather than the basic human right that it should be. This falls into a pattern of privilege where some privileges, like how Dudley is spoiled by Vernon and Petunia, are things that no one should have, whereas the privilege of being afforded basic respect regardless of one’s body type is a privilege that everyone should have.

There are also many slights against people who are perceived as thinner too. Petunia, for example, is often contrasted against Vernon as being quite thin. In their first introduction, they are compared as having “hardly any neck” and “nearly twice the usual amount of neck” respectively. The critique of Petunia’s size is on the opposite side of the spectrum, but it’s there, and it shows that the body-shaming in the series is across all body types, and in particular, directly correlated with a character’s likeability.

I’m not capable of cancelling in its entirety something so fundamental to my worldview as the Harry Potter series. But the more often I return to the text as an adult, the more flaws I find. In a way, that is almost a good thing, because in finding the parts of Harry Potter that don’t hold up to scrutiny, I am able to hold a mirror to the ways society as a whole does not hold up to scrutiny. At the same time, I can’t say that in good faith, because Harry Potter is a book series targeted at children, who can through the lens of these books (as well as the rest of society’s pressures) internalize the idea that it’s OK to make value judgments about someone based on their body, which is simply not true. We must imagine people complexly. And I guess that means we have to imagine books complexly too.

Header image via Wizarding World

[keeperofsparks]

Toxic Twitter/The disturbing cult like mind set of the far left

So after joining the great migration to Twitter due to the NSFW ban, I’ve decided to crawl back here due to how toxic, hypocritical, and self righteous, cult like mindset the far left on Twitter has. Due to how dismal the site was I’m writing this post as a warning to any young liberals, LGBTQ, POC, and in general any one else who comes across this post, please be careful with who you group your self with. This is going to be a fairly sizable and do keep in mind this isn’t a “Well being a conservative is better” post, cause those people got some issues as well.

To begin with, let’s talk about how many of the far left Twitter users get people to join their cause and how they keep people from leaving due to differing ideas. During my time there I saw a lot of vulnerable people joining due in part to how vocal the far left can be. There was always a post or thread about how certain groups are persecuted due to a variety of reasons. The vocal group will then sugar coat their approach and make it seem like they wouldn’t do those types of things and would protect them if the individual joins them. It might sound like a safe haven, but the person has now ended up in an abusive relationship and the once warm embrace will inevitably grow cold if they don’t agree with the vocal group. Yes, these vocal groups encourage some very deplorable thing and encourage these newbies to do the same. They’ll then use those same tactics on an individual in their group if they disagree with and they use that fear of being turned on as way to keep these newer people and to silence them in the process. It’s a very hypocritical approach even though the shout how they are a safe place and the world is out to get them.

Now speaking of hypocrisy, in the two or so years that’s I was actively on Twitter, there was plenty of it along with double thought. These individuals state how righteous they are but will find a excuse or shield to get away with doing what their “enemies” are doing. Caught stealing? It’s a trans issue. Drive a person to suicide? That’s a gender issue. They consider them self morally supior and insist that they should not be held held accountable for their actions. If you bring up that’s some of the same tactics used by overly religious folk and hate groups, they’ll attempt to tear you limb from limb. They have no issue with using what ever or who ever as long as it can push them forward.

Probably the most used group to push their agenda is anyone who is a minority, though specifically the majority minority. The most sickening thing I saw on twitter was that the far left basically had a tier list for races and will use it if said minority does agree. “Your voice doesn’t count, cause your Asian there for one of the smallest minorities.” “Well you’re mixed ethnicity, so of course you’d agree with that idea because your half white.” Those were some of the common sentence spoken when it came to minorities disagreeing with the far left. There even were a few articles written to try and say “Asians are actually whites” as for what ever reason despite the far left claiming they support racial equality but at the same time not a too subtle beef with people of Asian decent. Now the black community might have it the worse as they are sort of seen as a meal ticket. They’ll constantly act like any black success story is a fluke, they act like the black community doesn’t have a voice so they must speak for them, they fetishise the black community to the point where they stereotype them. I’ve seen several of these people say stuff like “They don’t sound black enough.” “If you use anything other than curly hair or afro like styles then your racist.” “Black people cant have these body features.” On top of it they’ll go after cultures that don’t share similar histories to America and call those cultures backwards, Japan is usually the one constantly getting the most heat. A bit more disturbing is they view that any race with darker skin must be black. These people are pretty much race profiteers, as long as they can use the suffering of others they’ll still be relevant. Though the past examples are very hair raising, I think it’s the lack of solidarity is what is the scariest.

The past month after the death of George Floyd is where I saw many of the above issues played their hardest and they only way I can explain why all these things are happening is due to a lack of a solidarity. As the protests moved forward “We” became “Me” and they still argued that it was a “We” issue. The issue of police brutality quickly spiraled into a bunch of smaller issues and diluting the large issue. There were so many tweets stating that we should cancel voice acting, how it actually a trans issue, oh it’s a go sign to start creating anarchy and look stores, let’s look at how problematic other people are, fuck every white person, people and organization can’t change, let’s STAN these companies and their thinly veiled use of this tragedy to boost profits or to get in the spot light again, the list goes on and on and on and it goes back to my first point, if you don’t agree with all of these you’ll be torn apart. It’s this sad sort of mentality of “We’re making the world a better place while not putting in a lot of effort. Please ignore the trail of bodies that we made.”

Now I can go into more details like how the character limit prevents expressing complex ideas and make it easier for cancel culture to thrive or how they bend fiction into fact, but I honestly think that the above points are why people should avoid Twitter altogether. It brutal if you don’t agree with them and if you do agree with them you’re bound to loose a limb when you do disagree with them or completely loose individual thought and become a puppet. What scares me even more if that what I saw was probably just the surface level toxicity and it’s even worse the deeper you go in. Please be safe out there and be careful of those who say “Everything will be fine once you join us, we’ll take care of you.”

[itsswimmingtragedycollection]

YouTubers are shitty people

First of all, deal with it, accept it, let it sink in so we can fix it like we should have done a long time ago. The more I get to know and learn about that community, the more I am convinced it’s specifically appealing to extraordinarily self absorbed, self important, egocentric, entitled people, and that’s no coincidence. I couldn’t put my finger on it for a long time, because it’s not until you come across a *few* actually decent youtubers that it becomes obvious. Reminds me of older generations and casual homophobia. They never see it as an issue because in their circles, everyone is doing it and it’s very well accepted if not even demanded.  The main reason I chose to call them collectively shitty instead of naming names, even though not *literally* every single one of them is shitty, is because they all (at least the very successful ones) seem to share certain character traits. But before we get into that, let’s discuss yt as a platform first. The best thing about it is also the absolute worst thing about it: ANYONE CAN DO IT. Politicians talk about farming as a low skill job, but that ain’t it, being a youtuber is. If you know how to film a video and have internet access, congratulations! Because that’s literally it. Now of course, some creators will put more time and effort and their additional skills into their work, but even if turning your camera on is all you got, it’s not an obstacle whatsoever. Just look at Tana Mongeau real quick. She sits in front of the camera, tells a whatever story, that could easily fit into THREE sentences, for half an hour, with minimal editing and bam! Hands down one of the laziest ‘content creators’ to this day, but still, in the yt world, she’s the 1%.  Other than Tana Mongeau, the more important problems with ‘anyone can do it’ are the factors determining who becomes the fairest of them all (which is what enabled her rise to fame in the first place). This is where we get political, but let’s get real, spilling the tea about who said what about who is so last year, in 2019 we’re looking at the bigger picture. The bigger picture would be, where we are as a society, which is not a good place at all. The situation is, a handful of people~the famous 1%~are fucking us in the ass for profit and effectively getting away with it.(Not really news) They are able to accomplish that with three main mechanisms: 1. Keeping people busy and stressed. If you have to get up early, work all day for shit pay and worry about paying your bills, debts, feeding yourself, keeping that job...you don’t actually have the time for much else. An average worker doesn’t have hours or days to spend on in-depth researching of socioeconomic trends, they’re mostly just going to rely on quick news they get from the media, which, as we all know, does not paint an accurate picture, to say the least. That middle class persona, who has a decent job, full 8 hours of sleep and some free time, with the rising rates of poverty and homelessness, is becoming a rarer and rarer occurrence.  2. Isolation. There’s this whole individualism thing that we got going on. You know the ‘We are all individuals for ourselves!! If you’re successful, it’s only because of YOU personally and if you’re a failure it’s because you’re stupid and unworthy!! Everyone is competition!! Asking for help is shameful!’ And also, belonging to a group (American, white, black, gay, straight, man, woman, trans...) is a part of our identity, but it’s almost like, identifying with a certain group means picking a side. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s great to know where you come from and to find a place where you belong, but individualism has us thinking that the differences between these groups are somehow irreconcilable, when, in reality, we have a lot more in common than not.  3. Providing you with an enemy. We all see this every day. ‘Mexicans are stealing your jobs! Immigrants are the biggest threat to national security! North Korea is our number one enemy!’ You know, usually people with virtually no political or decision making power in the country get to take all the blame. And if you’re an average person, stressed, depressed and isolated, and someone points a finger and says ‘This is the reason your life sucks’ instead of saying ‘Hold up, that’s not true, you’re the reason my life sucks, get that dusty dick out of my ass and let me take a break’ you end up throwing stones at people getting fucked just as hard as you.  (I would also like to point out that a big part of keeping this in place is fucking up the education system and rewriting history in a way that favors the existing situation so one feels less inclined to question it form an early age.) Now let’s get back to youtubers. The reason I wrote this long ass introduction is because youtubers come from the society and are very much a part of it. They don’t fall from the sky straight into our hearts, even though it might feel that way sometimes. In fact they are a product of it, because who thrives and who perishes is decided by the said society. People tend to gather around content that resonates with them, so just like a Trump supporter is very unlikely to endorse AOC, and vice-versa, we support youtubers that align with/represent our own beliefs and values the most. So upon taking into consideration the very shitty values and beliefs that we get shoved down our throats on a daily basis, it is only reasonable to assume they take part in deciding which youtuber we like and want to see succeed. And if we take a closer look at youtube’s it list, we will notice some pretty worrying similarities. First of all it’s rare to find one without a questionable past (and present) that ranges from racism, sexism, misogyny to bullying, lying, scamming...It’s so common that it’s not even that big of a deal anymore, it’s just a thing that happens. Kinda like apology videos. Who doesn’t have at least one these days? It’s hard for me to believe that out of hundreds of thousands of youtubers out there, we somehow accidentally cherry picked, almost exclusively, only the ‘problematic’ ones. And they are all ‘problematic’ in the same way.   Second of all, they are very self important. Also coincidentally.  When you make tons of money and have worldwide fame at a young age, and most of them are young, you start to think that you *must* be special. God must have put his finger on your forehead and made you better than everyone for all of that to happen to you. Sadly, this is encouraged by fans too. Even more so since today being rich is *the shit*  and the ultimate end game, so people will look up to them, admire them, idolize them etc. This leaves a very strong ‘you can’t sit with us’ aftertaste and frequent outbursts of entitlement whether it’s inability to take criticism, coming after regular people, letting fans tear them apart or  refusing to be held accountable for your bs and blaming other people. I think James Charles is an excellent example of an entitled youtuber. Even Gabbie Hanna handles criticism better. And he also categorically refuses to be responsible for any damage he does. Whenever a sister scandal occurs it’s either a) not his fault or b) he was a different person back then and has since done some personal growth so we can’t hold it against him.  Next, we gotta talk about that youtuber ego. We get to experience it any and every time someone asks ‘Why tf are youtubers getting payed insane amounts of money?’ They are a very easily triggered bunch and I can’t count all the times I heard ‘YOUTUBE IS A JOB NO ONE WORKS FOR FREE SO NEITHER DO WE JEALOUSY IS A DISEASE GET WELL SOON’  Here’s the thing though, no one disputes the fact that it’s a job. What is unfathomable to outsiders is, why would someone give a person five figures for saying ‘Buy this shit it’s really cool’ on camera? How is that possibly worth that much? Fact of the matter is, it’s not, but saying ‘By this shit it’s really cool’ to a shit ton of your followers, is. The youtuber ego is what happens when you can’t say ‘We earn money by exploiting the trust our fans put in us’ but you still have to justify your position so you say ‘First of all. We’re super special, original and unique. This is a very hard job, we work our asses of, if it was easy, everyone would do it.’ And then you star believing it. But more importantly, your followers believe it too. At the beginning I pointed out that anyone can to it because it’s a low skill job, so if you wondered why everyone is not doing it, it’s precisely because we’re constantly being told the opposite, and I gotta say, I don’t see anyone questioning it. Even though it’s not even remotely true. Take a look at any group, beauty gurus, entertainers, commentary channels, drama channels, whatever you choose, if you’ve seen five creators in a bunch, you’ve pretty much seen them all, not a whole lot of originality going on there. In fact, this ‘uniqueness’ is nothing more than some basic branding. Drinking coffee is so Emma Chamberlain, conspiracy theories are so Shane Dawson, racism is so Pewdiepie and so on.  Pewdiepie actually brings me to my last point. He illustrates what I want to say so incredibly well. As we all know, he’s been called out, multiple times, for blatant racism, antisemitism, sexism, overall regressive, aggressive, harmful standpoints. And absolutely nothing happened, he’s doing just fine. Why is that? Because, firstly, he never gets called out by his own fans. Like I said, we pick who we support, which means his fans gathered around him because they liked and shared his viewpoints in the first place. Not only did they not call him out, they defended him. How many times is Pewdiepie going to have a sister scandal and get away with it? As many as he wants. He’s never gonna be cancelled because the only people who have the power to do that, love his racism. He’s virtually untouchable. It makes sense why he acts like he’s got God by the balls. And, coincidentally, he is the most followed youtuber in history of youtubers with 80 MILLION SUBSCRIBERS. All the other shitty youtubers ™ stay relevant and slaying for the exact same reason. Their fans like them because they are shitty, it’s a vicious circle. Not ony are shitty youtubers ™ a reflection of how much we need to do better, they are to an extent preventing that from happening. ‘Such, such and such bad behaviour made this person rich and famous, so it must be good, and every time I watch their videos I am surrounded by people who think the same, which in turn, encourages me to glorify it even more.’  The whole reason I wrote this, is because we really, really, need to do better. I have seen people calling them out on things I mention here, but so far I never saw anyone connecting the epidemic of shitty youtubers ™  to our current circumstances as a society, which is definitely there. So instead of wrapping ourselves into the comfortable blanket of ‘as long as a lot of other people are thinking like me, everything is fine’ we should start asking for more from ourselves and others.  Pass it on, spread the good word. 

[taexual]

GOT7 / Mafia AU - They lose their child

REQUEST: Can I request a GOT7 mafia au where they lose their child in a park or something and get worried. Something fluffy with a little angst. ☺

I made this a little less specific and also accidentally added more angst but I hope you like this, love!!

OTHER MAFIA AUS: BTS / EXO / GOT7 / MONSTA X

ALSO, DISCLAIMER: this is not related to my GOT7 Mafia AU Arranged Marriage series!

WARNING: strong language, mentions of violence, themes of exaggerated protectiveness

Mark

It was the first time Mark was the one taking your daughter to the closest playground. Usually, it was you, since he insisted he was too busy – but, really, you had a feeling he only refused to take her to the playgrounds because he was afraid it’d make him look less masculine – but this time, you were stuck at home, fighting allergies and your little girl would not leave you and Mark alone, insisting that one of you had to take her outside.

Mark was, of course, completely whipped for his daughter and he did not want to see her cry – seriously, the sight of tears welling up in her eyes was what made him drop everything and follow her orders – so, cancelling all of his plans for the day, he packed up the essentials – which included half of his impressive collection of Browning pistols because you never know which elementary-school boy might dare talk to his princess – and headed to his daughter’s favorite playground.

He ended up being impressed by how nice it was outside and how much his daughter warmed his heart by calling out, “daddy, look!” when she wanted him to watch her jump off the swing or climb the monkey bars.

The mood darkened a little when Mark received a phone call he had to take immediately. He felt like he only turned around for one second to answer the call, but when he looked back at the swing to check on his daughter, she suddenly wasn’t there.

“So, as I was saying, this guy just got on my last nerve. You need to get your damn—”

“Shh, shut up,” Mark exclaimed into the phone, interrupting his friend that had to update him on one of the jobs Mark had left him in charge of. “My child is missing.”

“Missing?!” his friend asked. “You lost your daughter? Why didn’t you say so? Is that why you took a free day?”

“No, we were at a playground and she—listen, just take care of everything. I’ll call you back,” he said quickly.

Putting the phone back into his pocket, Mark took one hard look around the playground before calling out his daughter’s name so loudly, the nearby children all flinched. He paid no attention to any of them, however. He needed to find his daughter and then he was going to make sure to never let her out of his sight again.

JB

It was a busy time for you and Jaebum both. You managed to get Jaebum to understand that, although you weren’t shooting people for a living, your job was still important, and yet, despite that, when you came across problems about who’d watch over your son, Jaebum always insisted you do it. This lead to lots of arguments and, eventually, not feeling like fighting about this again today, Jaebum gave you a call to let you know that he’d pick his son up from school that day.

He got there just as a few kids were running down the stairs after walking through the front door. They greeted their parents and began to tell them about the day they’ve had at school. Jaebum found himself smiling, as he anticipated hearing what his own son would tell him.

However, Jaebum’s son was nowhere to be seen no matter how much Jaebum looked. It just didn’t seem like the little boy left the building.

Panicking and yet still choosing to wait another few moments, Jaebum watched the other parents leave with their kids in the car and then got his gun out, absolutely certain that the only reason why his son did not come out of the school was because someone took him.

Not really looking for any other explanations for his son’s absence – because every second was important – he walked into the school with his gun drawn and was greeted immediately by shocked and scared gasps of the teachers.

“I’m looking for my son,” he said. “I’m Im Jaebum.”

The teachers exchanged glances, scanning through lists of children inside their heads. Finally, one of them elicited a sound of acknowledgment.

“Mr. Im,” she said a little awkwardly. “Your son was absent from classes the whole day today.”

Cold sweat ran through Jaebum’s body as he heard this.

“W-what?” he stuttered – probably for the first time in his life. “But my wife had to drop him off here. She did drop him off before leaving for work.”

The teachers looked at each other again, not quite sure what was going on or what to do next. Jaebum was still holding a gun in a building full of children – even if the majority of classes were over for the day –  so the situation was, at the very least, sensitive.

“Perhaps it’d be best if we talked about this in my classroom,” said the teacher who was talking to Jaebum before.

“No,” he said firmly, right as she was turning around in hopes of him following her. “If he wasn’t here, I have to go. I have to find where the fuck my son is, and the sooner that happens, the better it’ll be for everyone.”

Jackson

Jackson was proud to admit that his mother, his daughter, and you were his favorite girls. In fact, if anyone asked him, he was more than glad to talk about you three endlessly – which is why no one ever asked. That didn’t stop Jackson from bragging, though. Once, he had truly ended up distracting the enemy Mafia family by starting an in-depth discussion about which kindergarten his daughter should go to. After getting the opinions of the enemy men, he shot them, of course. But now he had a list of new kindergartens.

His three-year-old daughter was delighted to go to one and meet other kids her age – Jackson might have loved her with his whole being, but he was easily the most protective dad on the block. Which is why he was always the one dropping his daughter off at the kindergarten in the morning, and picking her up in the evening.

You told him you could do it and actually insisted you do because sometimes, Jackson arrived to pick his daughter up with blood still visible on his shirt, and you didn’t want your daughter to see him like that. Jackson disagreed, though. His little girl just sighed whenever she saw his white shirt stained with blood and said to him, “mommy will be sad.”

One time, however, as Jackson arrived to pick his bright, too-smart-for-her-own-age daughter up, he ended up waiting for her to arrive longer than usually. Twenty minutes later, he was overwhelmed with concern and ended up exiting his car to talk to the staff.

But there was no staff. The kindergarten had just closed two minutes ago.

Kicking the door down was not a difficult task to Jackson; he’d already lost count how many doors he kicked down in his life. Looking around the premises in complete darkness with his favorite Glock out was not overly difficult, either.

The difficult part was the realization that his daughter wasn’t here. And he had no idea where else she could have been.

“Y/n,” he said to you, once you picked up his call. “I’m going to be home late. There’s some stuff to do.”

“Did you pick our daughter up?” you asked right away. “Is she okay?”

“She’s… safe and sound,” Jackson replied, closing his eyes momentarily. “I’ll make sure she is.”

Jinyoung

Before he had his own children, Jinyoung always despised the men who bragged about their children’s achievements. He just groaned and rolled his eyes whenever one of his men kissed a picture of their child before pulling their pistol out to start the attack. He could never understand it.

But then he met you and had a daughter, and all of his priorities switched. He was absolutely whipped for his little girl and you ended up having to remind him on more than one occasion that if he didn’t learn how to tell her no, she’d grow up spoiled.

“Good,” was Jinyoung’s response, however. “That means I did my job as her father well.”

You couldn’t quite understand his logic but, before you could stop Jinyoung, your five-year-old daughter was suddenly gifted the puppy she had so desperately asked her father for a few days ago.

“You’re walking it,” you warned Jinyoung. “And I won’t care if you have important business to take care of. I love the dog but—”

“I’ll do it, you have nothing to worry about, babe,” he replied, never allowing himself to lose the confidence. “Sweetheart!”

His daughter – reacting to the only name Jinyoung ever called her – was by his side immediately, the small puppy peacefully snoring in her arms. Eager to see how excited his little girl would be to play with the puppy outside, Jinyoung took both of them took a park, giving you a few moments of peace and quiet.

And yes. Literal moments. Because exactly eight minutes after they had left the house, Jinyoung was calling you. As soon as you answered, you could hear squeaky yelping in the background of the call and it took you a second to realize that it must have been the puppy.

“Jinyoung?” you asked, sensing that something was wrong. He wouldn’t have called so soon otherwise. “What happened?”

“Uh, see… there’s a bit of a situation here,” Jinyoung said, his voice nervous. “It’s my fault entirely, but you can yell at me later.”

“What happened?” you asked again, stricter this time now that your heart started to beat wildly in your chest.

“So, a gun went off somewhere in the distance. Presumably aimed at me,” Jinyoung started to explain and you heard shuffling in the background. He must have been walking. “The dog got scared and it ran. Our daughter, the sweet thing, ran after him, of course. Well, while I got my gun out and eliminated the threat – oh, by the way, there’s a dead body in the park; you think that’ll be problematic? Anyway. So, right after I did that, I saw that the dog is back. B-but, um… our daughter… well, she isn’t.”

“What do you mean she isn’t?” you asked, standing up. “You lost our daughter?”

“I’ll find her! She couldn’t have run very far!” Jinyoug said. “I just need you to get here and take the puppy. Oh, and, I love you.”

“I will kill you, Jinyoung.”

“Everything will be okay! I promise,” he said as he heard you loudly slam the door of your house shut. “At least let me find our daughter before you blow my head off, okay?”

Youngjae

Youngjae did not give his son any air to breathe. He was constantly around him, constantly worrying that something would happen to him. He was your and Youngjae’s only child so you could understand Youngjae’s fear but you also thought that your boy would suffer a lot if he grew up smothered and didn’t learn how to do anything himself.

Youngjae’s inability to find a proper balance between completely distancing himself from his child and suffocating him with his attention eventually resulted in Youngjae losing his mind outside of the ice cream shop where he had allowed his son to go in, so he’d get himself a vanilla cone. It has now been a little over twenty minutes but his son still hadn’t come out.

“Hello, sir, is there anything I can do to help?” the waitress asked kindly as soon as Youngjae threw the door of the shop open and ran inside, his stomach sinking at the anxious realization that something went wrong.

“A small boy,” Youngjae said, struggling to explain properly because he kept looking around the small shop, unable to understand that aside from him and the waitress, simply no one else was here. “Dark hair. Big eyes. Not very tall. Came to buy ice cream. I’m the dad. Outside. Waiting.”

Youngjae seemed to forget how to form coherent sentences as he proceeded to freak out, while the waitress watched him, confused and slightly alarmed.

“Sir, is your son missing? Maybe you should call the—”

Missing.

As soon as the waitress said the word, it sunk in. His son wasn’t here. Youngjae didn’t know where he was. His son truly was missing.

“There’s no need,” Youngjae said, swallowing as he located his trustworthy gun in the back of his jeans, where it always was. “But I’m going to ask you to leave. I’ll do anything it takes to find my son. You won’t want to get in my way.”

BamBam

The thing BamBam was most excited about was teaching his son everything he knew. BamBam had a chance to create a legacy with his son, but sometimes he felt like he loved the boy a little too much to get him involved in the danger of this life.

You trusted BamBam 100%, so you didn’t tell him that you’d have preferred him not to ruin your son’s childhood by teaching him how to fire a rifle instead of teaching him how to ride a bike. You knew your husband would make the right decision about your son’s future.

Naturally, after noticing how happy you looked every time he and his son did something normal, BamBam decided that his Mafia training could wait. Your son had plenty of time to learn how to defend himself from potential attackers. He could be just a kid right now.

And BamBam would come to regret this decision exactly three days after making it, when he left his child in the children’s section of the bookstore for one minute and did not find him there when he returned. It was like his son wasn’t even in the store anymore, because BamBam looked everywhere and he didn’t find him. On top of that, no one he asked seemed to have seen his son, either.

“Sir,” one man said to him as gently as he could, given the sensitive nature of the situation. “Perhaps you should calm down and call the police.”

“With all due respect,” BamBam replied dryly, the fire in his eyes indicating that he had no plans to calm down anytime soon. “When it comes to my son, I’m the police. And if there’s anyone to blame for the fact that my son is fuck knows where right now – I will fucking find that person.”

Yugyeom

Yugyeom was really eager to spend as much time with his son as he was physically able to, and not just because his son was also his heir, but simply because Yugyeom now had a best friend for life. Sometimes, he tended to forget that his five-year-old was not his peer, however. But the little boy never told on his dad when he swore next to him by accident.

Their bond was really one-of-a-kind and Yugyeom couldn’t imagine losing his child even in his absolute worst nightmares.

And yet, that was exactly what happened, when he took his little boy to the park since it was a sunny day and you weren’t feeling well enough to take your son there yourself. Yugyeom had volunteered to do it – “I am his dad, after all” – but only after making sure you were really okay to be left alone.

Somehow, as he gave you a call to check up on your health, he had lost himself inside his thoughts – granted, that always happened when Yugyeom was talking to you, so he really should have seen something like this coming, but who ever does? – and didn’t notice his son disappear from his field of vision.

Frantic, Yugyeom began calling his son’s name out loud. He pushed every child off from the swings as if his son had suddenly morphed into someone else. Crying, the kids ran away, while their parents cursed at Yugyeom and threatened to call the police.

One brave mother even dared to grab his hand to get him to stop scaring the other kids, but Yugyeom pulled his hand out of her grip so feverishly, she stumbled backwards a little.

“Don’t fucking touch me,” Yugyeom snarled at her, not a touch of his usually cool posture in sight. “Unless you’ve seen where my son had gone, don’t you fucking dare interrupt me.”

The woman forgot whatever she wanted to say immediately. Turning around with a huff, she left Yugyeom alone as he continued his search for his son, quietly cussing everyone out – especially himself, for not looking after his child well enough – under his breath.

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