#media: blog

[kiraras-universe]

Okay, I was finally able to put all my character info into at least a readable state. Please have this post saved somewhere or just check it once in a while because I will be updating it.

There are three different “stories” that will be in this blog( Although one of them is kind of connected to all the other ones). To make the organization easier I made a google folder for each.

There are three text documents in each: World, Character and Gameplay (as I often imagine these stories as if they were in a game). I’ll also include images that show each character’s appearance. These will be their Sims 4 screenshots for now but I will change these to proper reference sheets when I’m done with them.

Some are more in-depth, some I haven’t worked on that much, they will all be updated once in a while.

Chishu: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/11JO55KUN0sMp_KkB7rQmZ5U3QqvmxRc6?usp=drive_link

Heaven is Invite Only (HIO for short): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/19GGkZnklGTR0izZDdgcVB2osAZzZtLkd?usp=drive_link

Universe’s sister: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Ke-ONtXP8g4OOOxmqCeX2A0CO-4LGjEf?usp=drive_link

Fey Frontline: https://docs.google.com/document/d/11qCWb1YfV-qb7Hh1yaH6G7xws0Lup2xOpfoECwzU8GU/edit?usp=sharing (This one is really bare bones and only has Names/FC listed)

Because Sims 4 screenshots will appear often and they all have CC, WCIF is open. In the form of an ask. My CC folder is a mess so sorry if I don’t respond for a while.

You can also use the ask function to ask me or my OC’s questions. I will most likely just respond in text but I might throw in a sketch if I feel like it.

If I make rp blogs for any of them, I’ll list them here: Ruby Bates (John Wick AU)

I like ask games but they can get lost in all the posts, so here's the list of those I relogged as of now: Couple questions RED ask game Not-so-nice ask game Writer (& Artist) Ask Game Emoji OC ask game Torturing your OC's Random OC questions

[beepboopappreciation]

Is this anything

[prokopetz]

Referencing obscure Internet memes in mainstream media almost invariably falls flat, but if movie!Deadpool walked into the aftermath of a scene of gratuitous carnage and quipped "wow, it looks like a children's hospital in here" it would totally work. To those who don't catch the reference it would come off as generic edgy bullshit, and to those in the know, Deadpool having a Tumblr account is completely believable.

[myfootyrthroat]

School: Teaches you something for a week with historical background, context, effects, and outcomes.

One TikToker: Tells you it's fake while doing a bad contour.

Some of y'all: SCHOOL LIED?!

[bioethicists]

this is going to sound simplistic + i promise you it's not: stop following people whose entire schtick is being cruel or fighting with others online. even if the ppl deserve it! even if it's not a ~problematic~ cruelty! even if you agree with all of that blog's opinions!

it's one thing if someone snaps back when provoked or posts the occasional "get a load of this guy". nobody needs to play up respectability for people who haven't given them respect in return. but if someone's online identity centers around being needlessly mean for laughs + they're constantly seeking out socially acceptable, easy targets for petty cruelty, that's a red flag. there's a huge difference between not taking shit/cracking a joke + mocking others as your several-hours-a-day hobby.

especially if, when they are inevitably in the wrong + mocking someone mercilessly to their 50k followers over something petty goes south (shocking!), they become extremely defensive or block everyone or play the victim or dismiss it as "well, how was i supposed to know they were autistic? i'm autistic + i don't meow in public" or whatever.

this isn't a "well i knew all along" post bcuz nobody should be shamed for being in the dark about something like this but many of the popular bloggers who have later been exposed for serious harassment or abuse should not have shocked us. if someone's blog is 90% shit like "you should light yourself on fire because you watch x anime" or "look at this so-called lesbian bitch + her ugly fucking boyfriend at a kink convention- it's giving drowned rats", should it really shock you that they are also being cruel or abusive in less internet-acceptable ways? if they've already shown you that they get a such a thrill out of being vicious that they do it daily + are regularly rewarded with thousands of followers?

[naradreamscape]

This is how I feel I sound when I try to tell others about my lost media archiving

[donutdrawsthings]

we were all thinking it

[angel-cryptid]

Tumblr needs a pink mode

[stuckinapril]

I love Tumblr because nothing matters here truly. There are no influencers. Having followers doesn’t mean anything. It’s just a site where people post their sporadic thoughts and rb pretty pictures. Anyone who thinks any of this matters is woefully missing the point

[kiraras-universe]

In case you haven't figured out yet or didn't read the docs, the reason this blog is called Kirara's Universe specifically is because Kirara is a character that exists in every galaxy. There's a copy of them in all the other galaxies where she always has the role of a shop-keeper. The only exception being their own "Universe's sister".

So, basically, they are the universal god of these galaxies.

[theriverbeyond]

tbh I can't stop thinking about how i went into Hadestown being like "this is a tragic love story based on a greek myth I enjoy :)" and I came out the other side covered in blood being like "this is a thesis about how capitalism inevitably leads to both personal and global ruin, and so we are duty bound to resist it even as we lose, again and again and again. no matter how impossible it feels or how many times we fail and hit a wall and fall, we try again"

[prokopetz]

My favourite thing about the latest Twitter meltdown is all the artists reanimating their dead Tumblr accounts today and immediately being greeted with hundreds of notes because even a Tumblr account they literally have not posted to in 3–5 years has more active and engaged followers than the Twitter account that they've been updating daily.

[tshortik]

Turn on "prevent third-party sharing" in your settings!

Go into your settings, click on your blog name, scroll down and enable "prevent third-party sharing". I'm gonna be honest, I question how much/if this even prevents any AI bullshit, but do it just in case anyway.

Edit: On Mobile it's the Settings Gear, Visibility, Prevent third-party sharing.

You have to turn that on for all your blogs separately.

[originalartblog]

Apparently much-needed reminder that reposting artists' art (by saving the images or screenshotting them and reuploading them yourself) on other platforms without the artists' expressed permission and without credit is theft and an insult to their passion and craft. You are profiting (in views, in attention, in feedback) from someone else's work and ideas, who do not get that feedback for sharing their creation.

If you are an art reposter, you are a thief and I have no respect for you.

[haru-dipthong]

Gendered pronouns in Japanese vs English

In Revolutionary Girl Utena, the main character Utena is a girl (it says so in the title), but very conspicuously uses the masculine first person pronoun 僕 (boku) and dresses in (a variation of) the boys school uniform. Utena's gender, and gender in general, is a core theme of the work. And yet, I haven’t seen a single translation or analysis post where anyone considers using anything other than she/her for Utena when speaking of her in English. This made me wonder: how does one’s choice of pronouns in Japanese correspond to what one’s preferred pronouns would be in English?

There are 3 main differences between gendered pronouns in Japanese vs English

Japanese pronouns are used to refer to yourself (first-person), while English pronouns are used to refer to others (third-person)

The Japanese pronoun you use will differ based on context

Japanese pronouns signify more than just gender

Let’s look at each of these differences in turn and how these differences might lead to a seeming incongruity between one’s Japanese pronoun choice and one’s English pronoun choice (such as the 僕 (boku) vs she/her discrepancy with Utena).

Part 1: First-person vs third-person

While Japanese does technically have gendered third person pronouns （彼、彼女） they are used infrequently¹ and have much less cultural importance placed on them than English third person pronouns. Therefore, I would argue that the cultural equivalent of the gender-signifying third-person pronoun in English is the Japanese first-person pronoun. Much like English “pronouns in bio”, Japanese first-person pronoun choice is considered an expression of identity.

Japanese pronouns are used exclusively to refer to yourself, and therefore a speaker can change the pronoun they’re using for themself on a whim, sometimes mid-conversation, without it being much of an incident. Meanwhile in English, Marquis Bey argues that “Pronouns are like tiny vessels of verification that others are picking up what you are putting down” (2021). By having others use them and externally verify the internal truth of one’s gender, English pronouns, I believe, are seen as more truthful, less frivolous, than Japanese pronouns. They are seen as signifying an objective truth of the referent’s gender; if not objective then at least socially agreed-upon, while Japanese pronouns only signify how the subject feels at this particular moment — purely subjective.

Part 2: Context dependent pronoun use

Japanese speakers often don’t use just one pronoun. As you can see in the below chart, a young man using 俺 (ore) among friends might use 私 (watashi) or 自分 (jibun) when speaking to a teacher. This complicates the idea that these pronouns are gendered, because their gendering depends heavily on context. A man using 私 (watashi) to a teacher is gender-conforming, a man using 私 (watashi) while drinking with friends is gender-non-conforming. Again, this reinforces the relative instability of Japanese pronoun choice, and distances it from gender.

Part 3: Signifying more than gender

English pronouns signify little besides the gender of the antecedent. Because of this, pronouns in English have come to be a shorthand for expressing one’s own gender experience - they reflect an internal gendered truth. However, Japanese pronoun choice doesn’t reflect an “internal truth” of gender. It can signify multiple aspects of your self - gender, sexuality, personality.

For example, 僕 (boku) is used by gay men to communicate that they are bottoms, contrasted with the use of 俺 (ore) by tops. 僕 (boku) may also be used by softer, academic men and boys (in casual contexts - note that many men use 僕 (boku) in more formal contexts) as a personality signifier - maybe to communicate something as simplistic as “I’m not the kind of guy who’s into sports.” 俺 (ore) could be used by a butch lesbian who still strongly identifies as a woman, in order to signify sexuality and an assertive personality. 私 (watashi) may be used by people of all genders to convey professionalism. The list goes on.

I believe this is what’s happening with Utena - she is signifying her rebellion against traditional feminine gender roles with her use of 僕 (boku), but as part of this rebellion, she necessarily must still be a girl. Rather than saying “girls don’t use boku, so I’m not a girl”, her pronoun choice is saying “your conception of femininity is bullshit, girls can use boku too”.

Through translation, gendered assumptions need to be made, sometimes about real people. Remember that he/they, she/her, they/them are purely English linguistic constructs, and don’t correspond directly to one’s gender, just as they don’t correspond directly to the Japanese pronouns one might use. Imagine a scenario where you are translating a news story about a Japanese genderqueer person. The most ethical way to determine what pronouns they would prefer would be to get in contact with them and ask them, right? But what if they don’t speak English? Are you going to have to teach them English, and the nuances of English pronoun choice, before you can translate the piece? That would be ridiculous! It’s simply not a viable option². So you must make a gendered assumption based on all the factors - their Japanese pronoun use (context dependent!), their clothing, the way they present their body, their speech patterns, etc.

If translation is about rewriting the text as if it were originally in the target language, you must also rewrite the gender of those people and characters in the translation. The question you must ask yourself is: How does their gender presentation, which has been tailored to a Japanese-language understanding of gender, correspond to an equivalent English-language understanding of gender? This is an incredibly fraught decision, but nonetheless a necessary one. It’s an unsatisfying dilemma, and one that poignantly exposes the fickle, unstable, culture-dependent nature of gender.

Notes and References

¹ Usually in Japanese, speakers use the person’s name directly to address someone in second or third person

² And has colonialist undertones as a solution if you ask me - “You need to pick English pronouns! You ought to understand your gender through our language!”

Bey, Marquis— 2021 Re: [No Subject]—On Nonbinary Gender

Rose divider taken from this post

[chemicalarospec]

I just made a new sideblog and found out this setting (found under "Edit Appearance") (now found under "Blog Settings") is disabled by default.

Edit: Tumblr settings are unpredictable and devious. This may not be disabled by default for you. People have also said that their themes have been removed. Please look to the notes if experiencing complications.

This means that ALL new blogs will NOT have a [username].tumblr.com page. Not only that, but they will not have any themes besides the mobile-default.

As someone who really likes custom themes and Tumblr still having a fully customizable profile page, please turn this on!

You can make a website for your tumblr blog that is entirely your own!

Finding posts on your URL.tumblr.com page is much easier due to the ability to use your Archive and url.tumblr.com/tagged/[tag] pages!

Visiting your mutual's tumblr pages will become much more fun if they do the same! I used to always associate blogs with the themes they had, but that's sadly not possible anymore :(

If Tumblr themes die out, it will truly be an end of an era for the internet, and the future will hold only mobile-orientated, endless-scroll design devoid of personality.

Even if you don't like themes, this is a move that almost destroys Tumblr's origin as a blogging website and showcases the takeover of social-media-sameness.

Having your own URL and custom theme is fun! Try it today!!!

Edit: I focused on promoting custom themes but I do encourage people to simply turn on this setting for the URL. You can pick a free tumblr theme or even leave on the tumblr mobile-orientated default!

Also sorry I didn't think of this until now, but there are versions of this post in the reblogs without the colored text, with extra information, with how to find this setting, and troubleshooting why it might not be working!