#ofmd harassment

[ldrmas]

*hug

I'm here for ya

i think there's something so mean about how, when S1 ended and GB broke up, izzy AND his fans were called abusers (among other, horrifying things), i closed all my anon asks and twitter/ig dms because of it. i came into the fandom when the season just ended, "this feels like coming home" i said, and got a death threat a few days later. "i just want izzy to be happy", and a dm saying "you don't belong here" arrived. i got dragged in a doxxing scare, someone i know did get doxxed. now S2 has ended and what we feel is a disservice to his character, on the road to recovery and healing after the horrors of episode 1-3 and a suicide survivor dealing with disability, he gets killed off unceremoniously because 'he has no more role in the narrative'? just when he found a family and belonging he could've sailed with? he could've been written out without dying, getting his own happy ending. instead, he got killed by a stray bullet, on an avoidable 'suicide mission' (had someone else taken his place). and with us being upset, suddenly we have no right to grieve and be sad about this? suddenly we have people laughing at us and downplaying how heartbroken we are? we saw him happy and at home, we just wanted to end the show with that, him alive and experiencing the world with family. i related to him so much, of course it hurts. a lot of izzy fans started the S3 renewal campaign because we wanted to think everyone would get their happy endings. it's so sad to think about the show now. it's been more than a year and i still love this character and the community he's brought me. he's gotten me through tough times and given me hope. let us have this, let us be sad and upset and speak our criticisms, for kindness sake, for the kindness the show used to promise us. the same way people whose ships get broken up on cliffhangers and tragic ends are upset, let us have this too. this is a public message, but you have nothing good to say, if you're here to downplay the hurt, if you're here to laugh, please just scroll on by or block.

[chaotic-neutral-knitter]

my lukewarm fandom take is that even when there's a fanon thing that I despise with a fiery passion, seeing people who also hate that thing (but haven't bothered to curate their space to avoid it) get their brains pickled by haterism about it is genuinely equally annoying/exhausting/stupid.

if you see a post that's like "I'm not really into [ship], but this is the only way it would make sense to me" and you respond to it with "ew omg why are you even THINKING about [ship] that's SO gross" then my guy you have got to log off and touch some grass or maybe find an actual problem to be concerned about.

you can be critical of something without turning into a frothing at the mouth reactionary every time it's mentioned.

[fivehundredpagesoffiller]

Girls is gender neutral here ofc

[actual-changeling]

one single hot take from me before i go rewatch the reunion scene ten times and then go tf to bed.

we have a show full of queer people. every single person we encounter with the exception of the british probably is QUEER. ALL OF THEM. let that fucking sink in for a second.

and the queerness is so multi faceted and well done and reflects the realities of so many people watching it.

so if you sit down after this finale and type a post that in any shape or form calls izzy's death homophobic, "bury your gays", or anything in that direction? i need you to go outside for real. i need you to fucking log off and look at the news. maybe look at some nice queer media statistics from 2014-2016. maybe turn on the fucking tv and scroll through the programs and THEN you can come back and tell me how many queer people you saw. how many shows that are unashamedly about queerness.

yeah that's what i fucking thought you absolute twat.

if you are harassing creators over their writing choices when they are out there risking their careers to create queer media you are a vile person and i want nothing to do with you.

[ldrmas]

I hate to be a deppie downer, but I didn't hold out any hope for spn Jared/Sam stans to have empathy when we lost Castiel then lost Dean exactly next and have a show we loved all wrapped in a shitty series finale. So let's just assume that I have very little hope for this Fandom.

There's something I think is important to say, in the wake of the season finale.

And that is that Izzy Hands' death wouldn't be such a huge blow to Izzy fans if the fandom had treated them better for the last year and a half.

Losing a beloved character can be devastating. I personally have cried for days over it. (In retrospect I had Other Shit going on that made me extra susceptible.)

But Izzy fans have been through the wringer. Outcast and targeted for abuse in the fandom, accused of every kind of derangement and personal flaw, death threats, doxxing, organized harassment campaigns.

I don't even know most of it, because I'm not someone who spent time in the Izzy trenches, I still got death threats for talking about him. But I saw things that really made me disgusted with the whole fandom.

Then they got the high of being proved right by S2 in their interpretation of Izzy's character. The writers agree with Izzy fans, full stop. And just when it seemed like all the shit might be over and have been...IDK worth it? Rewarded?

Well, then he's killed off.

I understand the rage, the grief, the despair to feel like you were finally getting the thing you wanted from a show and then to have it soured. (coughTheMagicianscough)

I think it's important for the fandom, if it doesn't want to descend back into toxic sludge, to have some compassion and tolerance of Izzy fans emotional reaction. Talking shit about the fans that just experienced a great loss is not a class move.

Please try to have an ounce of empathy and humanity.

Because it's only NATURAL in in such a hostile fandom environment, Izzy fans grew deeply attached to their messed up little guy. They suffered abuse for it. That only makes things more intense.

I've been there, multiple times. It fucking sucks. We all are having a lot of emotions about the finale, and the very least we can do is to not turn on fellow fans.

I have very little hope for this fandom not turning back into a dumpster fire, because frankly the track record is POOR. But, well, figured I give it a shot in the dark.

[eduobsessed]

besties i hate to break it to you but izzy has literally Not Changed That Much compared to s1 like sure he's moved on and is learning to not repress his shit as much but his personality is exactly the same. we're talking about the "daddy... daddy..." freak. the creature who hate-flirted with stede in s1 with "plumb the depths *slutty curtain touch*". Like if you couldn't stand him in s1 and now think he's ok only because he's a "completely different person" maybe what happened is that your reaction to him was too visceral and people who seem cunts sometimes are people with shit going on (in his case his husband was cheating on him while he tried to take care of the household ok) that deserve some grace

[ladyluscinia]

Every once in a while I'll scroll the Izzy Hands tag and be blindsided by the sheer confidence with which haters assert that the majority appeal of BlackHands is *insert dynamic I have thank fuck never been subjected to in this fandom and would click out of instantly*

Like do you guys need actually enjoyable BlackHands fic recs? I feel like maybe you're reading absolute garbage or someone is fucking with you? I definitely know you did not do the reading on those metas you casually referenced, or maybe just needed someone to hold your hand and walk you through it again because you kinda missed the central point by a mile 😔

Surely you wouldn't be insulting a bunch of people for their shipping preferences based on shit you just made up

[piratecaptainscaptainpirates]

I'm seeing a lot of hate in the tags today so let's just go ahead and take all the bitching over the ads campaign to its natural conclusion.

Ignoring that the ad campaign raised over ten thousand dollars to be donated to charity and we have the receipts proving that happened, come on a little thought experiment with me.

A bit ago, I finished saving up 300 dollars and I spent it on a Lego kit I'd been wanting (the motorized lighthouse, if you're curious). That's the kind of purchase I usually don't have the disposable income to make responsibly, so it took me months of putting money aside for it. It was a responsibly-timed purchase; I made sure my bills were paid and grocery needs were met before I bought it. It also brought me many hours of happiness as I assembled it and I love looking at it displayed now in my home. Obviously, because I bought this thing from the Lego company, none of that money went towards charity. Was this purchase morally wrong of me because I chose to spend what is, to me, a fairly significant chunk of change on a selfish purchase instead of donating the money I'd been putting away little by little?

If your honest answer is yes, then honestly that's a pretty online take and we've got nothing more to say to each other. There are many terrible things happening in the world right now, but the idea that someone is morally reprehensible for spending money on something that matters to them instead of donating is wildly out of touch. Yes, I think you should absolutely donate to many of the excellent charities providing relief if you can! I've been running charity drives through my university for months, it's very important to me! But making the occasional selfish purchase is not morally wrong, and harassing people for doing so is not activism.

Renewal campaigns for cancelled shows are not new. Fans of other shows (I think Shadow and Bone?) have also been collecting money to put up ads recently. OFMD is an incredibly important show to many people - it's the first time I've ever felt so seen and respected by a TV show, and the first time I've ever seen a brown, gay man like myself as a romantic lead. It's a fucking good show, there's nothing wrong with us for wanting it back, and honestly if you donated to the ads campaign who fucking cares. That's no worse than me choosing to put money aside for a Lego kit instead of donating it. People making selfish purchases, whether towards a renewal campaign for a show they love or an overpriced cup of coffee, are not your enemy.

[dementian]

NO IM FUCKING SHOCKED

Who could have ever guessed the real abuse apologists would turn out to be the people who were harassing, abusing, bullying, and doxxing their fellow fans for a year and a half.

[cushfuddled]

Thank you for the wonderful video essay and also for reblogging Izzy enjoyers talking about their negative experiences in the fandom. Feels like our experiences are being amplified in a small way and it's cathartic <3

In response to your message: Thank YOU so much for watching my vid! And god, I'm just so furious at the way the OFMD fandom treated Izzy fans. I remember when I watched OFMD S1, I saw the way certain fans slapped a "wholesome" sticker on the show's forehead, and I went, "Holy mother of god, the antis are gonna be insufferable about this one."

The sheer vitriol leveled at Izzy fans reminds me soooo strongly of my experiences in the Voltron fandom. Like "the canyon"—from what I can glean from the outside, at least—there was this huge divide in the Voltron fandom where like, Shiro fans and Sheith fans were chased into the corners of social media/private Discord servers. We had to become a fandom-within-a-fandom in order to safely enjoy the show we loved and create fan stuff with each other.

I've been traumatized by these fandom campaigns, y'know? People pretend like suibait and accusations of racism and homophobia and transphobia and even abuse and grooming are just...words, I guess. Or they know the power of their accusations, and the cruelty is the point. Either way...I wouldn't wish that harassment on anyone. And Izzy enjoyers are such a creative, hilarious, wonderful group of people. It seems to me that y'all just want to enjoy your "skrungle" in peace. It kills me knowing that some of you aren't going to be able to just...shake off this hate campaign. It's going to leave scars. And all these wounds, whether superficial or deep (I remember the doc where an Izzy fan described how a group of antis got them fired from their job), were inflicted for such petty reasons. The practice of bullying-disguised-as-social-justice will never cease to infuriate me. Wishing you peace and catharsis.

[natjennie]

I haven't really engaged with the izzy drama bc its mostly so boring to me but. just saw a post that was like "it's so fucked up that djenks said izzy was a father figure to ed, the whole time he's been psychosexually obsessed with him" like okay have you never heard of a daddy kink? do you have no idea about the concept of a relationship with older men? you are the same kind of person who assigns found family roles to characters and then gets mad when people imagine them fucking. father figure does not mean literal biological father. you have no understanding of authentic queer experiences if you think being a father figure is in direct opposition to having a weird sexual obsession with someone. what the fuck are you talking about. being queer is literally all about subverting classical understandings of relationships and family roles and love and sex. have you not been paying attention? to anything?

[treesofgreen]

Just wanted to reach out and say that I’m not canyon (I do love Izzy though) but there are tons of people from the general fandom who find this behavior disgusting. Extremists in either direction are creating such a massive divide and I’m fed up with it. There is zero defense for doing this to Con, who has been nothing but brilliant and kind. I guess I’m just saying canyon is not alone on this one.

This actually really helps to hear, thank you 💜 and thank you so much for calling out this kind of behavior and mindset and naming the harm. It's so damaging to so many people and conveys such a deep ignorance of queer history and an appalling lack of care for current events.

[ladyluscinia]

I'm gonna single you out a bit because as far as I can tell, you are one of the kinds of person I was talking about in this post + relatively new to the fandom and missing over a year of context, so maybe I can successfully impress on someone why casually (and unknowingly) backing up a morally motivated network harassment campaign is not helpful (and have a slight sliver of hope for the general / casual fans hearing about it).

You can't say "no one hates you (excluding the assholes)" when the assholes are large, loud group of people that have been harassing fans since this hiatus started in spring 2022. Consistently. They were doubling-down on saying Izzy fans demonstrate harmful cult-like behaviors (in this case objecting to a "drink the cool-aid" quip casually comparing them to a cult because the official trailer was sympathetic to Izzy) a little over a week ago.

Fans of color especially have been viciously attacked and harassed by both anon hate and then (predominantly white) antis dismissing and encouraging their harassment while using it as an excuse to lecture them on how their takes aren't anti-racist enough because they still enjoy Izzy. Izzy enjoying fans of color have repeatedly attempted to lower the toxicity of the discourse - to the point of putting together an impressive worksheet that you can still read in this post to try and lay cards on the table.

When you look at the responses from big name fans who have made their whole brand "objecting to problematic trends in Izzy enjoyment" and thinking "liking the villain is fine as long you remember he's a villain and don't cause harm to queer/poc fans about it" please notice how the overwhelming consensus from the first months of 2023 is that Izzy fans just need to leave the fandom entirely. Also how they were - at the time and currently - scapegoating Izzy fans as the main generators of racism in fandom. This view is still pervasive.

People "loving a character wrong" is not the problem here. Nor are Izzy fans being uniquely problematic or white-centering or resistant to self-reflection as a fandom.

Literally you just aren't seeing the conversations we've been having or the nuanced takes we've generated because you (and soooo many other general fandom people who don't consider yourselves in the "hate izzy" camp) are occasionally looking through a very small window mostly curated by people actively looking for takes to dunk on and claim "ugh those problematic Izzy fans are at it again."

I'm sorry that people jumped defensively on your post for criticizing a random meta, but - to be blunt - you still don't know what you're talking about enough to make blanket statements on "what everyone has had issues with" about Izzy fans. And doing so anyway is reinforcing everything those linked posts above are trying to bring attention to. Please read them. And then maybe take their advice?

I don’t want these to be fighting words but they’re the last I’m gonna say on the Izzy discourse cause it seems to be getting worse instead of better:

No one hates you for liking Izzy. From what I’ve seen, what everyone has had issues with is the way some people have been defending his actions. (Note I’m not including people being assholes just to be assholes here, I’m talking about anyone willing to discuss in good faith.)

And I’m wondering if some of this discord comes from that fact that some people don’t know how to love characters who’ve done bad things. So they rationalise and rationalise until what they’re saying in defence ends up being worse than anything the character’s actually done.

You are free to love people who’ve done bad things. It’s not something you need to defend. And I’m being intentional here in saying “people who’ve done bad” and not “bad people”. There are millions of us on this planet who probably love a real person who has done bad things (I’m specifically referencing actions that directly harm others here).

To use a personal example, my mother was extremely physically abusive to me as a child. She kicked me out at 17. I have struggled for a long time because of her actions. And yet, I love her. I don’t need to excuse her actions in order to love her. I just do. And that’s okay. It’s a choice I have made after struggling for many many years with the effects of my childhood. But it’s a choice I have made without downplaying or minimising what she did.

For me, that’s the sticking point. It’s the rationalising of bad actions and going so far with it that you end up spreading beliefs that can harm people in the real world.

Not anyone hating you for liking a “morally grey” character.

[irate-iguana]

Izzy's a piece of shit and I hope he dies this season. If you're an Izzy stan I hope you die too.

Hey it’s my first hate message! What fun!

My previous post expressed zero opinions on Izzy, I simply said that I was scared of the intensity of the fandom in-fighting about him. So thanks for backing up my point!

[summerlinenss]

Yeah I'm sure plenty of loved ones are getting killed in genocides. It's a stupid pirate show, there are people are dying, people's rights are being taken away, good God go touch grass

babe idk why you’re so worked up about me caring about a stupid pirate show when i’ve been passionately advocating for the rights of others and firmly taking actions (real actions not just sending cowardly anons to people on the internet) for palestine.

also i wouldn’t expect you to know this but the ofmd fandom has self-organized fundraising and activism many times in its < 2 years of existence. we were on the front lines during the WGA/SAG-AFTRA strikes and raised money every single week for water and food/food trucks for writers and actors. we’ve had multiple fundraising events for lgbtq+ rights organizations. we raised over $10,000 (with an original goal of $2,500) in 12 hours through a charity auction for palestine legal aid. not for internet points, because we wanted to.

so i mean excuse us for also campaigning to get our show back. terribly sorry if our ability to care about two things at once offends you.

anyway:

[jellybeanium124]

ed: I eat chocolate because we're all gonna DIE one day, and I am gonna have a lot of chocolate before that happens