#please just DM me if you are indigenous and feel otherwise I am more than happy to listen

[heartshards]

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the broadway version basically the first Frozen film, so essentially connected to the second one as well? So shouldn't you be using a faceclaim who's Sami?

god I've literally been back for less than 24hrs

ahem. so yes, the musical is more-or-less the first film expanded upon. and yes, Frozen 2 does confirm Anna & Elsa are half-Northuldran on their mother's side. and yes, Walt Disney Studios has confirmed the Northuldra, the indigenous population trapped by the mist in the enchanted forest, are partially based on Norway's Sami people.

now I'd like to point out a few things.

first, I have been writing Elsa since 2013, when the first movie came out. I have used Lily James as a secondary/modern/as-needed faceclaim since that time. second, I situate Arendelle in modern/"real-world" verses in Denmark, since Frozen is based on The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen, a Danish author. third, and I cannot stress this enough, Arendelle and the Northuldra are fictitious, they are not exact representations of any one indigenous population, rather, as the studio has said, they can represent the subjugation of many different indigenous persons across Europe and North America. using any one particular indigenous actress might come close, but nothing would be 100% accurate to a people that was invented for animation. they are not, for example, absolutely based on real Columbian people like the characters of Encanto.

yes, Elsa is half-Danish and half-Northuldran, but she's also not entirely human at all – she is a spirit gifted to Arendelle in somewhat human form. if we want to get into the nitty-gritty of genetics, she wouldn't have blonde hair with her parents. it's scientifically impossible.

now I want to be clear I'm not trying use ~magic~ as an excuse to whitewash. I just think it's a bit odd to have someone jump in my inbox not 24 hours after I come back to writing Elsa and point out a faceclaim I barely even use. 90% of my icons are icons of the various musical actresses from bootlegs of the show. I only chose Lily back in the day because I felt she had the right expressions/mannerisms/costumes for Elsa. no, she isn't Danish, but as someone of white European descent, I wouldn't care if a British person played me when I'm technically Dutch. I will say straight out I am not of indigenous descent, so I won't speak for any such community, but I am also aware actresses that are half-Sami are pretty few and far between. if someone wants to suggest one to me that might work for Elsa, I am very open to it! but I want to circle this back to the fact that I really don't use icons super often anymore anyway. half my partners are iconless so I am moving more in that direction.

also, just as an aside, actresses of several different races and ethnicities have played Elsa and Anna and their parents in the musical, because it is a fictional, magical world. yes, based on the real one, but nonetheless, having a black Elsa or Anna or a Filipino Anna or a Japanese Elsa (all of which we have had in the stage show) hasn't undermined the story.

I would never claim Elsa's connection to the Northuldra is anything other than very important to her character, but I think nit-picking this element of my blog I don't even use often feels to me a bit more performative than actually helpful, especially when sent as an anon and not approaching as an actual conversation. I am always available via DM if you'd like to chat, though.

[vietzuko]

if we used to share a discord server, this post is for you!

hello! i am going to try to do this as anonymously and non-confrontationally as possible. i do not want this to be a spectacle or call out post, but i will say that i am quite disturbed by the way situations have transpired on the server. 

in case you didn’t notice, i left! when i left, i wrote a little goodbye post in #general, which has since been deleted. either the mods deleted my goodbye or they banned me from the server (which automatically would delete my message). in case you didn’t see it, here was my goodbye message:

hi everyone, i’m leaving the server. if you’re a POC who is interested in joining an ATLA server where POC can talk about ATLA and critically discuss race, feel free to PM me for a link! otherwise, this is goodbye. see you all around.

i won’t rehash everything that happened in the events leading to this, nor will i name names in this post. if you were on the server, you probably saw what happened publicly or you can message me personally, either here or on discord. if we know each other through the server and you want some clarity over names/events in this post, please PM me. 

if you are a POC in the ATLA fandom who is concerned by the events of this post and you would like me to clarify which server i’m talking about, please PM me.

i just wanted to share the very long message that i sent to the mods (on their prompting!) because i feel that it shows my perspective on what transpired.  unfortunately, this message did not result in any meaningful change, except for me getting banned/my messages removed from the server. i suppose that’s a type of meaning! haha. 

anyway. here’s the message. cw for racism, yellowface

hi MOD 1 (and presumably the other mods who will read this message)! thanks for reaching out. i’ve had some time to dwell on the situation and discuss it with other people in the server who witnessed it and reached out to me personally. this is going to be an unbelievably long message, so i apologize in advance and thank you for your time in reading it.

i think the first thing i’d like to do is give some context for the incident and to give my perspective on why i said the things i said.

i have PMed a mod about a racist incident in the server exactly once. it was when i first joined, and i saw a picture of a white person in yellowface in the cosplay channel. i didn’t know any of you personally yet (and this was before some of you even joined on as mods). i have since told SERVER MEMBER 1 about this incident and i’m pretty sure they mentioned it to you because i noticed you’ve changed the yellowface rule. but i think that the context of me pinging a mod about a racist incident and then witnessing another (although less egregious) instance of racism by the mods might explain why i am, in general, hesitant about talking to mods about racism on the server. i am just trying to live my life and experience as few micro-aggressions as possible.

i also think the fact that i regularly educate and push back against white people’s racially harmful messages in the server is also important context. i realize none of you likely know this, but about every two weeks i receive an unsolicited PM from a different white person apologizing/asking for forgiveness/asking for reassurance/asking further questions about their racism on the server. i’m glad people are learning from me, but this is a huge amount of emotional labor that i put into the server and its members because of course i have to reply and explain things and tell them not to worry and thank them for apologizing, etc. i know that these messages aren’t your fault, nor am i asking you to do anything about this. but it feels important that you know the price that i (and perhaps other poc in the server, although i can’t speak to that) pay in order to share space with you.

MOD 2 has even messaged me personally to thank me for educating people in the server and responding to racist messages, saying: “really appreciate how much effort you put in and everything, i was trying to type something up but floundering badly.” it was a nice message, and i appreciated it a lot! it also led me to believe that the mods would prefer if i engage with racist messages myself, rather than ping them, because it felt like i was just going to be more able/willing to articulate a response anyway.

so when SERVER MEMBER 2 messaged the zukka channel “thought that lives in my head rent free: Sokka's hairstyle in canon is just a warrior's hairstyle and has meaning because of that. Sokka wearing the same hairstyle in a modern AU is undisputably queer-coded” and nobody replied for a while, i assumed that it was because they had seen what i had seen-- a racially insensitive message that totally ignores sokka’s indigenous heritage and the history behind indigenous hair-- so i decided to step in with what i thought was a balanced response. 

SERVER MEMBER 2 then replied with a cheery “Fair enough! I will defer to your greater knowledge,” which i couldn’t tell was sarcastic or not, but i decided to be generous and to believe they were genuinely thankful for my reply, so i responded with a “you too can have great knowledge. i only know things because i read things. anyone can read things and learn,” which is something i firmly believe and also a way to divert the conversation away from SERVER MEMBER 2’s mistake, which i felt was the most dignified solution for them. i suppose this message could be read as aggressive because i didn’t use exclamation marks? but that feels unfair and ungenerous because i genuinely did not mean this message in a harsh way.

then SERVER MEMBER 3 jumped in and asked a few questions, which i read as a request for clarification, so i tried to continue to explain my point. it felt like SERVER MEMBER 3 wasn’t understanding what i was trying to explain, or at least i wasn’t able to articulate myself well enough, which was making me a little tired and stressy (and i was also thinking about my own race and queerness in stressful and triggering ways), so i decided to tap out of the conversation. 

me: dude i love u and i respect u and i truly believe that u are trying very hard to understand, but this conversation is making me kinda heated

SERVER MEMBER 3: I’m gonna step back from it because it’s not my conversation to insert myself into, which is what I did initially and apologize for

me: i think it's so important to engage + ask questions & i appreciate that u respect my opinions on these things, but i think i'm just. i have said what i need to say and now must sleep. much love to all.

to me, this felt like me expressing that i was feeling tired and upset and leaving the conversation, while still attempting to reassure SERVER MEMBER 3 that i still admired him as a friend. i felt like the conversation had ended peacefully!

i hope this helps explain why MOD 3’s message came as such a surprise. 

“the escalation to defensiveness and accusation regarding the original (relatively benign) statement was unnecessary and exaggerated. There’s an atmosphere of purity policing that’s been growing, which is why I took away the squick channel, as I assumed that a space that encouraged no repercussions was facilitating irresponsibility aggressive arguments. “

i truly didn’t believe i was being defensive. i was very careful not to accuse anyone of anything. in fact, i tried as far as i could to coat my language in “i” statements-- “i would personally not choose…”, “i would just. stay away from…” in order to avoid “accusations.” i was also trying very hard not to be aggressive, and i (and other poc that i have spoken to about this) believe that the idea that my messages were aggressive is racialized. just because a poc is upset about racism, it doesn’t mean they’re attacking you personally! 

i feel so hurt that my messages were wilfully interpreted in this way, instead of being read generously and from a more compassionate perspective, especially since i voiced my own upset and discomfort during the conversation. it distresses me to think that me expressing negative emotions is seen as aggressive, rather than a cause for empathy or care, and i do believe that this is because of my race.

if a mod had asked me to take the messages to the DMs or to squick or even just let me know that someone was interpreting my messages as aggressive, i would have changed my behavior. (like i said earlier, i spend a HUGE amount of energy coddling white people on this server. i am very used to it.) 

instead, i got the shock of 45 minutes after the fact, being publicly chastised and labeled as aggressive and being told that my conversation was “something nasty or unwanted.” 

the idea that SERVER MEMBER 3 was de-escalating a “clearly escalating situation” feels untrue to me. i was ready to move on after i sent my message to SERVER MEMBER 2, but he kept engaging me on the subject! (no hate to SERVER MEMBER 3 on this.)

i think one of the most painful parts of this whole situation is the implication that i was attempting to “purity police,” as though i am a person who picks fights just because i want to feel good about picking fights?? or to act holier-than-thou???? i do not do this. if you have witnessed ANY interaction i’ve had with a racially insensitive white person on the server, you will know this. 

i am simply a person of color trying to live my life. i do not want to fight about racism. i want to chill out and watch my cartoons. unfortunately, sometimes, someone will say something that i consider racially insensitive and i will do my best to engage and explain why i find this insensitive. that is all. (it is important to note that most of the time, when i see racially insensitive things on the server, i do not say anything because i am tired and it is a lot of effort to engage. i truly only engaged this time because nobody had replied to the message and i was just like, oh, fine, i guess i’ll educate, since no one else has!)

this whole incident has honestly made me really hurt and disrespected. i have enjoyed my time on the server and i have made some good friends there. however, it feels clearer and clearer to me that the server is a space where white feelings of safety (not being criticized for their racist content) are prioritized over poc’s feelings of safety (not having to witness and experience racist content). i sincerely considered myself to be an active and enthusiastic member of the server, maybe even friends with some of you, but it feels to me that all of our previous positive interactions have been displaced by this idea of me as an aggressive, overzealous purity cop who calls things racist for fun. 

i don’t even know how to repair my relationship with the server after this because i really do feel horrible and sick about the whole thing. i have spoken to other poc who also expressed their concerns about the way the mods handled the situation, even if these other poc weren’t directly involved, and some of us are considering leaving the server, if we haven’t already. (i would also like to note that these people reached out to me, unprompted, to make sure i was doing okay after what they and i interpreted as a micro-aggression by the mods. like, we independently read the situation in this way.)

(also, not sure if this matters, but i talked to SERVER MEMBER 3 the morning after the incident because i wanted to make sure he was okay, and we both ended up apologizing to each other and having a really good and productive talk.)

thanks again for reading this. i hope that you’ll be able to better understand my perspective on what occurred. i truly appreciate the work that you put into the server (especially as someone who also puts work into the server lol), and i know it’s difficult to mod a large server (i also mod an atla server!), but i continue to feel hurt about this. i know it’s hard to read tone over server messages, but i really wish that my (and SERVER MEMBER 4′s and SERVER MEMBER 5′s ) server messages had been read with greater compassion. 

...

and that’s all folks! i’m going to be remaking my blog soon, partially because this whole experience has exhausted me and partially because i have been meaning to anonymize my internet presence for some time.

[mcnamaragifs]

This post is for mobile users! Figured it might help! If you are using a translator, or if you have any questions about these rules, please feel free to dm me (@kathmcnamara). I understand things can get lost in translation, and I'm more than happy to clarify things if you ask me to.

Gif Rules:

Personal use edits only. If you have a credits page, do not link to the pack page.

You MUST submit a form to this blog at first. If you have sent a request for a pack for a fc, you may dm me to ask for future packs. Asks involving page links (other than “page broke” esc stuff) will never be answered.

I will check if you’re using a fc on your blog, and reserve the right to deny a request if you are not.

Do not white wash my gifs. If you need help editing gifs without whitewashing (again, for personal use), feel free to dm me.

Do not use my gifs to miscast characters. This includes racebending, white-washing, etc etc. This also does not apply to recasting a white character so they are now a character of color.

I assumed this would be common sense with the rest of my rules, but I feel a need to make it explictly clear. People in groups that are racist against black and indigenous people, OR that try to bully, belittle, silence, and/or otherwise ignore black and indigenous people are NEVER welcome to use my content. Get off my blog.

Do not use my gifs for writing taboo subjects (aka incest, rape, abuse, etc etc). I am willing to make exceptions for past tense exclusive biography references of certain subjects on a case to case basis, but you must make me aware of this in your form.

Also, if you’ve read this far, erase the timezone section of the form. Any forms with the timezone will be deleted.

No celeb rps (groups that roleplay real life people as themselves).

If you are an adult who roleplays with irl minors, you cannot use my gifs.

Do not use my gifs to portray offensive stereotypes, racist acts, and/or fetishization. On top of that if a group of muns in the rpc says something in regard to their fcs, and you refuse to listen to them, you cannot use my gifs. (Example: Korean roleplayers have said KRPs are fetishization, if you participate in them I am uncomfortable with you using my gifs. Same with naming Turkish fcs non-Turkish names, using closed cultures you're not apart of, etc etc.) 

If you’re mean to my friends, you can’t use my gifs. They’re the most important people in my life. You also cannot use my gifs if you have me blocked for obvious reasons.

I reserve the right to refuse you access to my gifs for any reason. 

Frequently Asked Questions:

Do I have to read your FAQs?

Nope. The form is under this section.

Can I send a dm / an ask?

I will not respond to asks requesting my gifs at any point in order to limit the toll on my health, as it's way too confusing to keep track of for me. As for dms, you must send me a form for the very first pack, after that just feel free to slide in my dms for any future packs.

You gave me your gif password before you started requiring a form, do I have to send you a form now?

Nope! You guys are grandfathered in to my old privatization system and I know exactly who you guys are. Just dm me for new links and/or fcs as they come up, and if you're using a new fc on a new blog, just shoot me a dm with that link too.

You made a gif pack a long time ago but I can't find the original post on your blog anymore, do you still have it?

Actually yes, for the most part I do! Occasionally there may be exceptions, but if I actually made the pack (and it's not one of my friend Dev's - the former owner of the kathmcnamra url I have now), there's a 99% chance I do have the link. Just shoot me a dm or ask for it on the form, I've got you.

Can you make a pack of xyz?

I usually only take requests for my friends, however if you have suggestions for any of my absolute giffing faves (Dayo Okeniyi, Isaiah Mustafa, Kat McNamara, Asa Butterfield, Emilie de Ravin, and Jack Quaid) I am more than happy to consider them, and there's like a 90% chance I will do it because I am giffing them anyway already. I make no promises, but their faces bring me great joy and I usually have things for them in the works so if there's a demand, I'm more than happy to bump those up the list. Otherwise - if you want to send me a suggestion, I will consider it. If it's something up my alley I'll consider it and get back to you on whether or not I have the muse to gif the project, and an estimated amount of time it'll take me. Things that may increase your odds of me saying yes are 1. the project being a movie, 2. the fc is underused and the project has not been giffed before, 3. you let me know in the request what tws I will be working around.

Why do you even care how we use your gifs?

....I just don't want to exposed to gross shit tbh, and blogs writing the topics I have banned for use kept reblogging my shit and making it very obvious they weren't reading my gif rules so much I couldn't go in my activity feed without hyperventaliting. Honestly I am expecting that people will break my gif rules, but at least with this system in place they won't as much as a massive fucking dick and trigger me in the process if they wanna keep access to the blog.

The Form:

Name/Alias:

Self-explanatory, this is both to keep track of who's using my gifs and so I can actually refer to you by name when dming you because #manners.

Timezone:

You know what to do.

The Blog You Will Be Using the Gifs:

Self-Explanatory, if you are not using the gifs on Tumblr just let me know where you're using them. Be it Wattpad, Jcink, A03, Discord, or wherever you guys are using gifs alongside you're writing.

The Gif Packs You'd Like A Link To:

Please let me know both the FC and the specific pack. (Example: Kat McNamara at Coachella, The Romee Strijd Gif Icons). Please request as many as you'd like at once, just be aware I will be checking if you are using the fc you're asking for the gifs on the blog(s) linked and if you are not, I will deny your request.

The Rule Page of the Roleplays(s) My Gifs Will Be Used For:

If it's a fic or a something small that doesn't have a rules page, okay, just promise me you're gonna follow my gif rules okay. But if you're asking for a group or an indie, I would like to read the rules page.

After I receive the form and review it, I will send you a dm from this blog with pack links. If you don't hear from me within a few days, please shoot me a dm here or @kathmcnamra, Tumblr might have eaten it.

LINK TO THE SUBMIT BOX