#or predatory behavior

[sendmyresignation]

wait.. if you’re willing could you go more into depth of why warped sucked. i never got to go to warped so i wouldn’t know.

sorry i totally missed this from last night! but yes ofc. disclaimer i personally never went to warped (though many of my friends did around 2014-14 when they were in middle school). i also don't Hate warped tour, it's an important part of third wave history and a traveling all ages show is actually a pretty great idea imo.

that being said most of the issues with warped are a result of bad policy and mismanagement. first and foremost, warped was predicated on this idea that "any band could play at any time" (names would be drawn for determining stage sets). combined with the fact they would be playing a lot of back to back shows, after insane travel. most bands just. they didn't perform well! and with how hard the techs had to work the sound stage sucked. for bands that aren't 2005 my chemical romance, the pay apparently sucked- it was a fest where you destroyed your body and banked on exposure. i think this is a bad way to run a fest!

second of all, every issue people have with wwwy and the lack of women is v much a symptom of warped's problems. notoriously bad at booking women to the point shiragirl camped out in 2004 (in a sparkly rv btw- sorry I hate this) to advocate for an "all-girl" stage. The solution, the shiragirl stage was almost worse imo- a stage smaller than the rest sectioned off from the rest of the fest and covered in pink. easy to ignore if you don't care and it subsequently has been in the minds of warped tour attendees. unless you were paramore, the chances of women getting on main stages were incredibly slim.

warped/lyman also was just generally accepting of abhorrent behavior- from allowing conservative assholes like guttermouth to play and harass other bands for being "fags" to letting a pro-life tent onto the org advocacy grounds. but the worst and easily the sticking point of a lot of criticism of warped is the complete blindspot with sexual violence, both in terms of letting bands with accusations play and in terms of violence/harassment in the crowds. considering the age of many of warped's attendees, imo, this is incredibly egregious

this is getting too long there is more to say about the culture/band change at the turn of the decade and lyman being a punk ass bitch saying "scene politics" caused ppl to not want to do warped anymore but at the end of the day warped is never coming back bc paying $40 for a fest ticket is impossible unless you aren't paying bands and staff or your whole operation is beholden to monster energy

[herd-reject-arts]

So I'm leaving work and something darts in front of me, maybe 10ft away, too fast for me to see what it is. Peek around the tree blocking my path and I see this

Just like... a whole ass hawk. Dude's gotta be about 1.5ft tall. Massive fucking bird. And it's just staring me straight in my soul like this, even as I try to move ahead. It didn't budge. And there's only this path back to my car unless I want to walk on a busy highway. So I have the option of Death By Raptor or Death By Truck.

So I walk in the poison ivy filled patch off the sidewalk. Guy still isn't moving. Still staring me directly in the eyes. And I do this thing when animals are behaving strangely where I'll talk to them, so I'm just like, "Hey, man. I don't know you. You don't know me. This feels really threatening. I'm just trying to get to my car, dude. Can I get some space please? You're a big fucking bird. I see those claws. You could kill me right now, but I'd appreciate if you didn't, ok?"

It didn't move until I was about 2ft away. Again: I'm as far from it as I can be without walking into the street. It clearly wasn't going to budge. I walk past, thing flies up (silent, btw. Scary) and lands on a brick wall a little further ahead

Anyway. Weird guy. Nearly shit my pants when I noticed a bird big enough to carry off a fully grown cat was just... there, staring me in the face, unwilling to move away from me, a human, something it should see as a threat. I watched behind me the whole rest of the way to my car, just in case this bird decided to help me shed this mortal coil. 10/10 experience. Super cool guy.

[alwaysbewoke]

[gay-otlc]

Actually I think we should talk about how incredibly fucked up it is for sapphic women to say shit like "I'm no better than a straight man 😔" when attracted to a woman in a way that isn't 100% pure and wholesome, or act like men's attraction to women is inherently dirty, predatory, or objectifying.

[leneemusing]

this has less to do with rp and more to do with general online spaces, but if you find yourself in a group that keeps 'receipts', if you are surrounded by people with loads of screenshots, who lurk and keep tabs on people they don't like, who will constantly publicly mock and joke either vaguely or overtly about people they've had beef with (even people that are annoying, done weird or even problematic stuff but they keep bringing it back up) you are in a toxic environment. even if they seem to have the moral high ground, still be cautious. take it from someone who has been around the block a few times, drama follows circles like that and you'll end up anxious and always worried about ending up on their bad side. 9 times out of 10 they're making fun of everyone behind the scenes. people who have your best interest at heart will always care more about supporting you and lifting each other up than keeping track of every slight and finding excuses to be scornful.

[affogato-analysis]

Caitlyn as a symptom of Piltover’s violence

No because i need to throw hands with both her haters and lovers.

Mass spoilers for Arcane, season 1 & 2, for every characters.

(post is like 2k words)

(small edit it's been five hours and you guys are so kind and positive?? i love you so much, the conversations are so fun! the reblogs i see u and ily, my ego is soaring! i got more arcane rants coming if u wanna tag along idk lmao)

(thanks a lot is all i mean to say)

Was what Caitlyn did in season 2 act 1 terrible? yes. Does that make her a terrible person? debatable. Is she the best girl ever and above any criticism? also no what the fuck.

What happens to Caitlyn, essentially, is that she loses her mother and burns for justice and vengeance, and is willing to do all she can to reach her goal. Which is not an uncommon arc in Arcane, to be willing to burn it all for your family and getting overwhelmed by anger and loss.

The main difference is the scale and power dynamics. Because the chembarons have their shimmer, Vi has her gauntlets, Powder and Jinx have bombs, Silco and Vander have allies but they quite match each other when it comes to power until the very end.

So why is Caitlyn’s case so apart from the others? Here’s the thesis: Caitlyn is a symptom and the harm she causes is a consequence of Piltover’s domination over Zaun. I will argue for it thank you.

The main characteristic of Caitlyn, in the context of Piltover leading a targeted assault on Zaun, is that she is the one with power. Caitlyn is, first and foremost, a Kiramman. The show’s explicit about the power of the name, because with the name comes respectability, status, wealth. The Kiramman family is a powerful one, that’s why Ambessa chooses her above Salo. Both Cait and Salo have enough hatred for the Undercity to follow her lead if she plays her cards right, but Caitlyn, even if not officially appointed, has the power to exist in the Council’s room. Salo is nothing beyond the Council — and while it gives him power, his own family or personal entreprises are irrelevant enough that we do not know of them — while Caitlyn is powerful even without the Council — she does bypass every standard enforcers recruitment procedures to get Vi in, and thus we are told that she is one of the most important if not the main funder of the enforcers. In a state holding its peace through sheer violence and constant repression (especially after Jinx’s rocket), if one private actor owns your police force, you are at that actor’s mercy (which, yes, does turn on Cait when Ambessa’s soldiers take over).

Most importantly for us, the Kiramman hold one monopoly of power over Zaun. A vital need of Zaun they are the only ones to answer. Yes, we’re talking about the vent system. Caitlyn, in her anger and in her determination to do whatever it takes to get to Jinx, is willing to use every power she has. That includes her rifle and her aim, when she takes the shot at Jinx despite Isha and Vi standing in between, but also the vent system.

And as we’ve said, Caitlyn is going through a fairly usual character arc in Arcane of becoming a monster for love, for family, only to be brought back by love and family (Vander i’m looking at you) (and then that culminated into nothing to serve Viktor’s character arc tihi) (i mean it when i say Caitlyn has an amazing arc). It just so happens that Caitlyn owns Zaunites’ right to breathe. Is it immoral to weaponize it? Absolutely, and we can deplore the lack of political repercussions on the Kiramman in the show but that’s a more general criticism: the audience and the Zaunites are expected to just forgive Piltover to ally against Noxus. We can have sincere grievances about that (i do, and a lot of caitlyn hate comes from there from what i’ve seen) but it’s not a Caitlyn exclusive problem.

The thing is, Caitlyn’s weaponizing of the vent system isn’t the root of Piltover’s oppression or of enforcers’ violence. It’s a symptom of this violence. Cait can weaponize the vents because she owns them, because Zaun’s clean air is her possession. Because Zaun’s vital needs are dependent on Piltover. Cait doesn’t even realize just how much she’s hurting Zaun. She knows she’s gassing them but, and to her credit, it’s a fairly targeted assault (what Cait is doing isn’t terrorism!) but she is a reminder that whatever little fresh air they have, it’s still a mercy from Piltover. Piltover engineers a problem and a solution and holds that solution above Zaun’s head to silence their protest. This is domination, this is the root of that vent system being oppression still: the Kiramman hold Zaun’s air hostage and it took two mourning girls for that hand to cut off the air flow.

Caitlyn makes herself an enforcer of that violence in her grief, and that’s the symptom of a deeply ingrained disease. The root of that disease is always, always the inequalities between Piltover and Zaun.

The violence is the symptom of a system that is critically failing, repression means your governing body is illegitimate, weaponizing clean air is oppression to its finest.

To argue this point a bit further, we’re gonna circle back to Silco and Vander and how their power dynamic influences their behaviors and how their power struggle drives the entire undercity.

Vander and Silco both benefit from powerful allies. Vander has Grayson, Benzo and his position as bartender of the Last Drop makes him a valued member of the Undercity for Zaunites. Silco has Singed, Sevika and an entire network himself. They are two pillars of Zaun, creating a status quo that they work to maintain (at least their own position of domination) while furthering their own goals: Vander wants to raise his kids, Silco wants the independence of Zaun. Two vastly different sets of goals admittedly and that’s what leads them to reach out to vastly different individuals to help maintain it. Vander seeks out Grayson with whom he strikes a deal, while Silco allies with Singed for shimmer.

And when power suddenly shifts, when the right conditions appear, when the status quo is shaken, that’s when Silco asserts his power over Vander and his domination over the Undercity. Vander is put in a vulnerable position (his deal with Grayson isn’t enough anymore and he’s arrested) and Silco seizes the opportunity, deploys a power he has a monopoly over (shimmer). And after Silco wins against Vander, he can deploy his power over all of Zaun.

The status quo between Piltover and Zaun is constantly imbalanced. Piltover has already won at the beginning of the show and has been asserting, over and over again, through violence and in an abusive fashion, its domination on the Undercity. Caitlyn is like Silco in that comparison, she uses a power over which she has a monopoly (vent instead shimmer), in an unbalanced situation that puts her in the situation of the oppressor.

(And facing her, there is someone who is willing to turn that power against her. Just like Vander using Shimmer to protect his children, Sevika and Jinx using the vents for their own colorful clouds.)

Cait isn’t a poor innocent victim of circumstances but you have to acknowledge context and, in a show where parallels are so frequent, you can’t pretend she’s a completely unique character going through a completely unique arc completely unrelated to anyone else. If you hate her, hate a lot of other people too!

And, as is typical in Arcane, characters are monsters for love, and brought back by love.

And Caitlyn’s arc shows that! Past arc 1, she was lost. Vi had left, Jayce was missing, her mother was still dead even if after all she did, her father was a shadow of himself, the only one she had was Ambessa who was fueling her vendetta to further her own colonialist agenda. Suddenly she was alone, serving as a puppet on top of a pile of gold and too much power she couldn’t control. She can’t call back the gas once it’s out after all, she can’t call back the martial law Ambessa installed now that the resentment is growing in Zaun and that Ambessa is the one holding the reins of enforcers.

That’s why her switching sides was so immediate: when Vi calls her cupcake, she brings the girl forth, before the monster. She gives her love and Cait latches onto it, and uses it to pull herself away from that trap she walked right in. “Why does anyone commit acts others deem unspeakable? For love” & “Is there anything as undoing as a daughter?”: love is forever the way in and out of hate.

I am very disappointed that we never got a proper conclusion to the tensions between Zaun and Piltover. I wish we had witnessed negotiations between Ekko/Sevika/Jinx/a representative of Zaun and the Council, I wish they had gotten control of the vent system, promises of fair trade, independence, something. I wish Caitlyn had been made to apologize and deliver herself the keys to the vent system to Zaunites. I wish for a lot of things about the political resolution in season 2 and the show did not go how i wanted it to. Does deviating from what I wanted inherently make the show bad? No, although I do think it wasn’t the greatest this time around.

I however can not talk shit about the character arcs. Not all are as well crafted as Caitlyn but i will take no more Caitlyn slander on the basis of “she’s a fascist!”. 1- that’s not what fascism is, although she did walk a line close by; 2- she’s a symptom of oppression, and by reproducing she makes herself an agent of it. She weaponises Zaun’s air because she can because she’s in power because she’s the heiress to the Kiramman. Doesn’t make what she’s doing less harmful, but it has to be treated in context. Caitlyn is still a twenty something grieving girl with her entire world shaken up, she just so happens to also be the heiress to an extremely wealthy and powerful family in an oppressive system and every path that opens to her, in the midst of her hatred, brings her to reproduce that domination in the most efficient way she has access to: the vents and the enforcers.

And, yes, by reproducing domination she is also an engineer of it. It’s important to acknowledge that what she's done is bad to put it simply, but do not denature her character to fit a conception of her that is easy to hate. I will put part of the blame on internalized misogyny too, as it pushes us to have less leniency and tolerance for women’s mistakes. No because I haven’t seen half that much hate towards Silco who, reminder, made the Undercity kneel by giving them severe shimmer addiction (engineering an issue and making himself the sole owner of the solution while maintaining it as a form of domination, everyone see where i’m going with this?).

Again, do I wish we’d seen more of the political consequences on Caitlyn of that? Yep, absolutely. But I will not blindly hate on her while ignoring the global context of her actions and I invite you to do the same.

Tell me, do you hate Jinx for her so-called terrorist acts or do you see them as part of resistance against Piltover? You can not see the context when you like it only i’m afraid, and, in an unprecedented show of nuance for the internet, we can understand context and acknowledge moral complexity and still hate someone.

Hate Caitlyn if you want, but do it in a constructed way so we can argue together please! I need to talk about this show so badly, please hate the enforcers and the change in Cait’s character but do so in a well-argued fashion, i beg of you.

[lilybug-02]

Sorry to bring this up, but you used to draw with a guy under the name GameTheSoldier right? Have you seen what he recently posted?

Yes. For starters, I want to reiterate that anyone reading this post NEEDS TO BLOCK HIM. He is an online predator and emotional manipulator.

Trigger Warning Below: (Mentions of manipulation, predatory behavior, grooming, and pornography)

Me and 2 of my close tumblr friends would draw with him constantly on magma.io (all of 2022). He had strange tendencies of guilting us into drawing late into the night and emotionally breaking our characters. February of last year both of my friends came out and told me that he had been talking and drawing with them more privately. He had asked and guilted them into drawing pornography and extremely violent artworks of his and their characters. Both were underage.

I can tell you that what he has "admitted" in his most recent post is not even close to what he actually did.

Gamethesoldier, as a 22+ year old man, targeted MULTIPLE minors online, heavily MANIPULATED them, started long and serious relationships with them, and MANY more disgusting acts with pornography and gore. I went to the police last year, but was unable to get him arrested as he and his victims were in different countries and I myself was not one of his victims.

What he has done is unacceptable, despicable, and criminally illegal. One of my friends was heavily impacted by his actions and is still clearly shaken by what happened. They are at no fault for any of what he did.

For respect to my friends, I kept this quiet, deleting all of my art with him. But recently I saw he was with another magma.io group and... I could NOT let that stand. He does not deserve pity or empathy. He is a criminal and one who has manipulated minors to a horrifying degree.

I apologize for the extreme degree of this post. But I wanted to make it clear, he is not a good person.

[hang-on-lil-tomato]

evidently it’s all ok…

for a powerful 61 yo to go after young 22 yo women.

well alright then.

it’s amazing what people will do to defend these creeps. It’s why and how they get excused for this behavior.

I was assaulted by my 60+ yo boss when I was 21.

IT’S GROSS! it's about the power differential, stupid. It’s PREDATORY!

[hanasnx]

Omg what is starlet reader was ewans daughter and Hayden used to babysit her when she was a kid

MINORS DNI 18+ NOTES: i rly liked this concept :) feel free to ask me about it more! i think this was a good broad start to it WARNINGS: dead dove do not eat | age gap | dark content proceed with caution | there is absolutely no predatory acts mentioned, but because the situation is inherently predatory i'm tagging it | sexual content at the end | implied smut | no y/n

! ── "Yeah, no problem. We'll stay on site at my trailer, order a pizza. How hard could it be?" HAYDEN CHRISTENSEN assures Ewan, who frowns at him in response, clearly amused. "Alright, I'm going to pretend you didn't say that." he pats Hayden on the back as he exits, and when he gestures to you, he tells you a simple "Be good." Your complexion flushes when Hayden lays eyes on you. "You ready?"

! ── "I don't need a babysitter." you tell him as he picks up a slice of pizza from the box, the strings of cheese stretching thin until they break. You have a raging, hormonal and proximity induced crush on your dad's co-star. Not to mention he's a total babe, and so kind. Desperately, you want him to see you as independent, as cooler than you are. You think he's so grown up even though he's barely older than a legal adult. "Sure you don't. We're hanging out." he replies so easily that you almost believe him, even though he's only saying it to make you feel better.

! ── You've always been so standoffish with him. You found any excuse to be around him, but you'd jade yourself out of fear he'd find out your embarrassing feels for him. Often you'd fantasize about him confessing his love to you— but had no idea how problematic that'd be if he did. Now, you're inside his trailer, alone with him, and he's coaxing you out of your shell by making you play one of his video games. It smells like a boy's room in here. "Ugh! I'm no good at this!" you cry, throwing your hands down into your lap. Frustrated over your lack of progress, you've been going around in circles in this mission for what felt like hours. It exacerbated your already heightened stress levels around him. Would he think less of you for not doing well? "Wait a second, hold on," His voice is surprisingly soothing, muffled by the pizza crust stuck in between his molars like a cigar. You don't realize it's because he's resisting the urge to leave you here when he steps outside to smoke. He promised he'd keep an eye on you, so that's what he's doing. Besides, he doesn't wanna be a bad influence on you. He reaches over, and you relinquish the controller to him, his hand grazing yours in the process. "Let's see here..." Instead of paying attention to the screen, you stare at where the point of contact was. "There, see? You had it." he tells you, handing you back the controller after he'd gotten you past your obstacle.

! ── It would be several years before you'd see Hayden again, but you didn't forget him or his extraordinary kindness. He had a way with words, a way of making you feel heard and important. That doesn't change at all— he hasn't changed at all. Besides the way he looks at you now that you're all grown up, established in the world as your own person. Ewan thinks to reintroduce you to Hayden, but he didn't forget your name. Exclaiming it even as he pulls you into a polite embrace, relaying to you he hardly recognized you, that you look great, etc. Just like that, your raging crush is back. Like it never left.

! ── It picks at you until you act on it, until you confess to Hayden you've always had a thing for him. You're both older now, which means you're not so ashamed of yourself, but can look back on it as normal childhood feelings. You're thankful your fantasies were never answered until now. "A crush? On me?" he asks in entertained disbelief, gesturing to himself. "Yes! Obviously," you insist, "You were always so nice to me. Watching out for me when my dad was working later than he thought. How could I not? C'mon," "I'm not judging you," he assures, and he shrugs, "I just... didn't know is all." It's apparent he doesn't know what to do with this information. "Does that make you uncomfortable?" "Yes and no." "Why?" He meets your eyes. There's a tentativeness to his countenance, a debate behind his gaze over whether or not he should say his next words, if they're appropriate, if they'll be received well. "Because I've got a crush on you now."

! ── Going through your normal stages of adolescence, experiencing the journey of discovering your sexuality, exploring it as an adult with your own autonomy— there was always that inkling in the back of your mind reminding you of your lingering childhood crush on Hayden Christensen. How you've never felt anything for anyone as intensely as you did for him. Those buried feelings manifest when you finally allow them to roam, sweeping you up and away. He'd invited you to his trailer to catch up, and you end up on top of him.

[theereina]

Men... That's it. That's the post.😒

[dazednstoned]

Dutch and Bill defenders are the scariest people on this site

[orkbutch]

The reason I say I think kink is a powerful tool of queer liberation is because queer kink is visually, philosophically, culturally, very resistant to true assimilation. The full extent of queer kink is not marketable, it is not palatable, it is inherently weird and deviant because kink intentionally engages in the unsavory, the taboo, the difficult and strange. It lays power and how it functions very bare. It subverts socially engrained power structures constantly. It plays with things that society fears. I also think kink would be sociologically considered forbidden knowledge, and this also makes its assimilation into hegemonic culture very difficult.

Kink cannot be clearly and openly advertised and marketed because of this forbidden knowledge; it's offensive to almost all cultural standards. (This is a GOOD thing.) It cannot be conveniently standardized. It is and always will be unappealing to a large portion of people, because BDSM WILL engage in play with scenarios that are genuinely and understandably upsetting. (It is very much like horror in this way.) And because of the risk involved in Hard/More Risky BDSM, I don't think it should ever become culturally normalised. It is something that requires a community that ensures participants have the proper education, guidance, good intentions and standards, and is capable of pushing out bad actors to protect people. I think safety information should be plentiful and accessible, but I don't think it should (or really could) be "normalised".

I think thats powerful! I'm so glad we have furries, pup-players, piss drinkers and adult babies to keep at least one corner of culture inpenetrable to heteronormative hegemoneity.

[alwaysbewoke]

[what-is-my-aesthetic]

Going to stay anonymous to. Avoid the proshippers finding me but you quite literally have the best takes on shipping. Ily Athena

ALSOOOO on a completely unrelated note CONGRATS ON GETTING MARRIED!!! Sending all my love to you and Ben!!

THANK YOU!!!!! Omg your positivity and well wishes means so much to me! It really was the most magical day ever 🤩😔

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[jinxed-ninjago]

i swear every single Nya scene in this compilation is there because my brain is screaming at me "ISN'T SHE A MINOR HERE????"

[sugarlesswriting]

With the whole Quiet on Set I want to remind everybody about the creator of Ren and Stimpy, John Kricfalusi, had started a relationship with a 13 year old fan, who became his live in girlfriend at 16. People say it was an open secret but let's be real honest and say the truth it wasn't an open 'secret' there was no secret, it's just that no one at Nickelodeon/ those around John gave a shit that he started dating a teenager.

Nick execs have a history of not giving a FUCK what their creators do.